Amazon.co.uk: I Am Shelby Lynne: Shelby Lynne: Music

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Listen to Samples

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1. Your Lies	Listen
2. Leavin'	Listen
3. Life Is Bad	Listen
4. Thought It Would Be Easier	Listen
5. Gotta Get Back	Listen
6. Why Can't You Be	Listen
7. Lookin' Up	Listen
8. Dream Some	Listen
9. Where I'm From	Listen
10. Black Light Blue	Listen

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
One of the new breed of US crossover country stars, 30-year-old Shelby Lynne has a lived-in voice and the offhand grace of a southern steel magnolia. Although she recorded some albums in Nashville, it wasn't until she returned to her native Alabama that she made this, her debut for Mercury, and the one she is most proud of. Mixing lilting Southern soul with slide guitar country on tracks like "Leavin" and "Why Can't You Be", she has the same down-home, dead-sharp style of 1970s deep-soul sisters like Ann Peebles or Shirley Brown. There's also a touch of girl-group pop purity in songs like "Your Lies" and languid nostalgia on "Where I'm From", a wry tribute to a hometown that "ain't no Margaret Mitchell". Most powerful, though, is the acoustic reverie "Lookin' Up". When she was 17, Lynne's father killed her mother before shooting himself and that sense of personal tragedy seeps into this song, especially in the classic line: "I'm lookin' up for the next thing that brings me down". --Lucy O'Brien

Description
I AM SHELBY LYNNE is a genre-blending affair marked by lustrous production and surprisingly mature songwriting. Lynne dips into soul, R&B, folk, and rock to forge a collection of radio-ready tracks that pay tribute to many of the great female singers who inspired her.
"Your Lies" approaches Spectorian pop grandeur filtered through a '90s sensibility. On "Leavin'", the singer attempts to revisit the warmth of Aretha Franklin-like vintage soul. "Life Is Bad" may please fansof Sheryl Crow and Lucinda Williams. "Why Can't You Be" almost sounds like a tribute to Williams, expect for the blaring horns that bring the track to unexpected corners. The lightly hypnotic "Lookin' Up" calls upon strings, flute, synthesizers, and a slightly Stereolab-like intro for eminently palatable results. "Where I'm From" is an honest and straightforward tribute to the singer's Alabama home. And on "Black Light Blue", Lynne sounds like a world-weary chanteuse, working a smoky room in Southern Texas. Fans of radio-friendly female singer/songwriters will want to pounce on I AM SHELBY LYNNE.

Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

(13 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Country / Soul crossover, 26 Jun 2002

By	Stevie Maudsley (Preston, Lancs) - See all my reviews

This is an outstanding album - One of those rarities where the hype is justified.
Much has been written of Shelby's troubled youth and we'll never know for sure if this has been a creative driver in her life, but this album is a pressure cooker of simmering anguish. To be honest, the lyrucs suggest a broken heart from a broken relationship - but this may well be transposition.
The term Alt. Country has to be one of the worst yet divised for a musical genre, but this album falls under this catagory. It is a real hybrid of trad. country and southern soul. A new (To me, at least) and very refreshing combination. This is one of those special album that, despite being of a sombre and reflective tone, is actually incredibly uplifting.

I've got some advice for you. BUY THIS ALBUM. If you give it a couple of listens and don't like it, I will personnally give you your money back. I may even pay for the operation too...

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Nashville refugee gone done real good!, 26 Mar 2000

By A Customer

Shelby Lynne and Sheryl Crow have a lot in common. Superficially they come over as handsome, tough ladies ready to drink you under the table then spit beer in yer eye. Musically they are both produced by the distinctive Bill Bottrell and make music that draws its inspiration from many styles with a rock-country-blues crossover to the fore.

But the similarities are only skin deep. Whilst Crow's material basks in the 1000 mega-watt light of promotional publicity, Lynne spurns such activity. Crow has been the darling of the mainstream media since her more-than-adequate debut in the mid-90s, plodding a slow, steady, predictable path of TV appearances, glossy mag covers and Bond themes to a position of music industry nomenclature - a position she can milk for the rest of her life without ever having to make an outstanding record.

Alabama native Shelby Lynne on the other hand, has suffered years as a Nashville stable also-ran, producing formulaic album after album that straight jacketed a talent which has come bursting onto the scene with this album. The title says it all: "This is the real me, this is what I can do!"

The result is a collection of songs that , whilst stylistically similar to much of Sheryll Crow's material, is much stronger, musically, lyrically and emotionally than that of the west-coast darlin'. The soulful "Leavin'", the bayouesque "Where I'm From", and the Specter-inspired "Your Lies" all sound genuine, heartfelt musical expression, rather than exercises in style. "Life is Bad", a gruff slice of bar stool philosophy and "Why Can't You Be?" are juicy chunks of rootsy blues pie, whilst "Thought it Would be Easier", "Dreamsome" and "Gotta Get Back" are laid-back, jaunty melodies that you'll have trouble shifting from your head. The Gumbo girl rounds it off with the jazzy coda "Black Light Blue".

Whether it was the indignity of the Nashville experience, or a natural aversion, Lynne has so far spurned all the marketing hype. But the good will out, and this album is a genuine wonder. Like Macy Gray's triumph of last year, it looks like this one's going to be a slow burner, building up a head of steam through word of mouth alone. And believe me, once you hear it, you won't be able to stop talking about it.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

FANTASTIC!!!! BUY IT NOW!, 8 Dec 2004

By A Customer

I bought this album after seeing the video to 'Your Lies' at the end of an episode of TOTP2, and it has become one of the most played albums in my collection. From the opening 'your Lies' to the closing notes of 'Black Light Blue' the whole album is, in my opinion, flawless. Shelby covers Sheryl Crow style country rock to soft bluesy songs such as 'Lookin up'. Light a few candles, laze back with a glass of wine and I guarantee you will love the album. I can't praise it enough.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Beautiful
This album did not come out of my cd player for about two months when it was first released.

I saw Shelby on TOTP2, (Your Lies) then TFI Friday, (I'm Leaving) (both... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Musicman

Brilliant!
Not to be confused with the 'Epic' label compilation 'This Is Shelby Lynne', THIS is the real deal. There is not one filler track on this, and the CD fully deserves all the awards... Read more

Published 17 months ago by Edward Hough

12 Months spent well...
From the cover photo of this album, with the blue-eyed stare you get the impression this lady is going to take none of anybodys crap! Read more

Published on 9 Jan 2003 by Milt Ingarfield

Supreme, a stunning album from a stunning talent
I've been listening to this album compulsively since I bought it. Not a note or word is out of place in any of the songs and every thing you'll hear is infused with soul, passion... Read more

Published on 21 Jan 2001