Shelby Lynne
Shelby Lynne explores her Dusty pop-soul roots
Former country singer's latest album created out of love for Springfield
SHELBY LYNNE
Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival, Deer Lake Park
Sunday, 5:10 p.m.
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Tickets $45.00 today, $50.00 on day of show, from livenation.com
t's 108 degrees Fahrenheit outside her home in Palm Springs, but over the phone Shelby
Lynne is as cool as can be. Which is exactly what you'd expect, given the tenor of her recent recordings.
After some initial fame as a mainstream country singer, Lynne reinvented herself with her 1999 album I Am Shelby Lynne. Her new sound was more soulful, had a harder edge, and was much, much deeper. It brought her reams of critical acclaim and a Grammy Award, although she never really did Britney numbers, saleswise. But she solidified her fan base with solid albums like Identity Crisis in 2003 and Suit Yourself in 2005.
Lynne's records tend to be worlds unto themselves, but she really outdid herself on her latest LP, Just A Little Lovin', a tribute to the late British pop-soul singer Dusty Springfield. Covering songs by one of the most soulful singers in pop history is a daunting task, but Lynne succeeds by stripping the songs down and delivering them in a hushed, intimate manner, like she's playing a small jazz club in the wee small hours of the morning.
"If a song is worth a damn, you don't need to make it fancy," reasons Lynne, who will be appearing at the Burnaby Roots and Blues Festival Sunday at Deer Lake Park.
"The song will do the work for you, you just need to be in service of the song, and that's what we did, you know. Just let the great melodies and the beautiful lyrics take us where we wanted to go. That's as simple as it is. A great song stands through many many years and many many artists and many many singin's and many different versions. If it can still stand up and you treat it right, it'll work for ya, yeah."
Some of the covers are well known (I Only Want To Be With You, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, The Look of Love), others are a little more obscure (Breakfast in Bed, Willie and Laura Mae Jones). But Lynne gets to the emotional core of each one, simultaneously paying tribute to Dusty and making the songs her own.
One of the highlights is a spellbinding version of I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore, a tale of heartache and betrayal written by Randy Newman. The lyric is sung by a woman whose man may be having an affair -- at least that's what the neighbours are saying, which the woman can hear through her paper-thin apartment walls. Lynne's vocal is so forlorn, so lonely, it's simply heartbreaking.
"That's the song that [I heard where] I fell in love with Dusty," she says.
"I love the whole Dusty in Memphis record, I love Son Of a Preacher Man and all that stuff, you can't beat it. But Randy Newman in that frame of mind just blows me away."
Many of the songs have great storylines. She is totally into another song that was recorded during the Dusty In Memphis sessions, Willie and Laura Mae Jones. It was written by swamp-soul cult hero Tony Joe White, who also wrote Polk Salad Annie and Rainy Night in Georgia.
read more : http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=c5b84038-3623-4048-9cce-bb37abac5623
Related : Shelby Lynne, shelby lynne, allison moorer, dusty springfield, rin tin tin
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