THE HOOK (Charlottesville, VA) Interview

October 30th, 2011

“I’m a strong f*cking b*tch,” says Shelby Lynne. And that’s not all she wants to clarify.

Although raised in Alabama and possessing an admitted southern accent, she says she’s not country. For sure, the genre has become increasingly vague, with the modern radio sound frequently glossier and less intense than Lynne, a Grammy winner who strives to make art with a deep emotional experience.

“I want to break down and cry,” she says, “when someone sings to me through the speakers.”

Her latest album, Revelation Road– which she wrote, performed, and produced herself– is her most personal yet. There are several songs about her troubled childhood, for example, including the murder/suicide that took her parents. Listening to all this can be rough, but for Lynne that’s the point.

The Hook: Did this album take a lot of planning?
Shelby Lynne: I don’t make plans. You can try to make plans, but you’re really just at the mercy of what the universe is going to do.

The Hook: What did you learn along the way?
Shelby Lynne: I’ve been making records so long, most of the time dealing with several different personalities. This was different in that it was just me, and it was relaxing really.

The Hook: This is a change from the early years when you were more just a singer.
Shelby Lynne: [When] I was just 18, a child, my goal was just to be a famous country star. I never gave a sh*t about writing. I just wanted to sing and perform and be famous. After years in Nashville, I just decided that out of the songs I was cutting, I wasn’t getting my point across. I wanted to make art.

The Hook: This one doesn’t sound like a Nashville record.
Shelby Lynne: If I could only eliminate the country stigma from my name. I am a country person. I was raised in Alabama, I have a country accent. I love and appreciate country music, but I make music that moves me and I don’t give a sh*t what anybody calls it.

The Hook: How would you define country today?
Shelby Lynne: People think country is what they play on the radio. I want to write songs that in 40 years I can say, “I’m f*cking proud of that.”

The Hook: Were there emotional places you couldn’t go on this record?
Shelby Lynne: No. It doesn’t bother me to be bare and emotional and naked. My a** is out there to make you feel something. It’s not a f*cking talent show.

Shelby Lynne performs at the Southern on Thursday 11/10. $25-$30, 8pm.

I’m a strong f*cking b*tch,” says Shelby Lynne. And that’s not all she wants to clarify.

Although raised in Alabama and possessing an admitted southern accent, she says she’s not country. For sure, the genre has become increasingly vague, with the modern radio sound frequently glossier and less intense than Lynne, a Grammy winner who strives to make art with a deep emotional experience.

“I want to break down and cry,” she says, “when someone sings to me through the speakers.”

Her latest album, Revelation Road– which she wrote, performed, and produced herself– is her most personal yet. There are several songs about her troubled childhood, for example, including the murder/suicide that took her parents. Listening to all this can be rough, but for Lynne that’s the point.

The Hook: Did this album take a lot of planning?
Shelby Lynne: I don’t make plans. You can try to make plans, but you’re really just at the mercy of what the universe is going to do.

The Hook: What did you learn along the way?
Shelby Lynne: I’ve been making records so long, most of the time dealing with several different personalities. This was different in that it was just me, and it was relaxing really.

The Hook: This is a change from the early years when you were more just a singer.
Shelby Lynne: [When] I was just 18, a child, my goal was just to be a famous country star. I never gave a sh*t about writing. I just wanted to sing and perform and be famous. After years in Nashville, I just decided that out of the songs I was cutting, I wasn’t getting my point across. I wanted to make art.

The Hook: This one doesn’t sound like a Nashville record.
Shelby Lynne: If I could only eliminate the country stigma from my name. I am a country person. I was raised in Alabama, I have a country accent. I love and appreciate country music, but I make music that moves me and I don’t give a sh*t what anybody calls it.

The Hook: How would you define country today?
Shelby Lynne: People think country is what they play on the radio. I want to write songs that in 40 years I can say, “I’m f*cking proud of that.”

The Hook: Were there emotional places you couldn’t go on this record?
Shelby Lynne: No. It doesn’t bother me to be bare and emotional and naked. My a** is out there to make you feel something. It’s not a f*cking talent show.

Shelby Lynne performs at the Southern on Thursday 11/10. $25-$30, 8pm.

The permanent link to Shelby’s interview with Executive Edits

February 2nd, 2011

Her pipes are pure and honest, blue collar yet royal upon delivery. Her appearance manifests as a union of Dixie beauty and international grace, with a shot of Maker’s. And she can kick your ass. Over a decade since the visually angelic outlaw received due critical acclaim and shiny awards for her epic exposé “I Am Shelby Lynne”, the aforementioned songstress of Southern grit and essence has struck not only the jugular of the “Good ol’ Boy” Nashville network, but a chord in the Heart of America.

She is guilty of thievery in the scenes she steals on the silver screen and boob tube, a sex siren who aspired for none of it. She sings like it’s the last song mankind shall ever hear; Brash, uninhibited and absolute in her artistic conviction, she is the quintessential confederate chanteuse that Yanks and the rest of the globe have no choice but to adore.

Upon the inception of her home grown (and middle finger to rivals’) label, Lynne has created audio masterpieces, the latest emerging in her naked and ambitious “Tears, Lies, and Alibi’s”…even though we at Ee were frightened in our approach, we were able to muster the preceding inquiries for the Diva of counter culture. Luckily, she did not harm us.

It has been said, by others, that you’re one of the more intimidating players in music. Are you a softy at heart, or should we be concerned with our safety?

I’m a softy, until I’m not.

You’re one of those rare artists that could be lazily dubbed as “indefinable”. Can you define yourself?

I try not to define anything really, especially myself. I like to let the music do the talking.

How would you describe the evolution of Shelby Lynne after two decades of performing?

Older and much wiser. Only do what your heart tells you to do.

I sat in a quiet room this morning preparing for you by listening to your rendition of “Anyone Who Had A Heart” the beautifully written Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic and … Old Time Sake. The songs were written decades apart, but in both you’re able to tell a story, and seem to live each soulful verse. I’m left wondering if these recording sessions leave you emotionally drained?

The opposite. I love to sing, and I love to interpret other writer’s songs. So when I know I have delivered the story, I feel rewarded.

Your new CD Tears, Lies, and Alibis is all you, an independent production. Your label, material, arrangements, written and produced by you, with I presume full and absolute artistic control. So… is this approach this scary, liberating, or a bit of both?

Not a lot scares me. But it makes you more aware of every stone. I am enjoying the free experience.

In effect, you are the label. Would you consider allowing emerging artists to join the Everso roster?

Not at this time. I am trying to promote my own music now, but I keep all doors and avenues open to wonderful, raw, talent.

Whos’ currently on your personal listing playlist?

I just bought Tom Jones latest which is good, and I like Nick Drake, Miles Davis.

What’s your current state-of-mind?

Well, I am packing to go on the road for 3 weeks so I am busy tying up loose ends before I leave. I am in a great state of mind.

CHICAGO SUN TIMES – CD REVIEW

November 28th, 2010

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/conner/2927694,holiday-music-guide-112810.article

Shelby Lynne, “Merry Christmas” (Everso)

She’s soulful, she’s country, she’s a sexy Mrs. Claus. Shelby Lynne brings the Muscle Shoals studio sound to the Christmas party. That’s pretty much exactly what she’s singing about in one of her two original songs on this holiday set, “Ain’t Nothin’ Like Christmas,” which finds her skipping through a shuffle rhythm and concluding, “I’ll bring the nog/You put on a log / It’s a Christmas pah-ha-ha-arty.” The light bluegrass hoedown of Tex Logan’s “Christmastime’s a-Comin’” illustrates why adults still revel in the holiday’s childlike spirit. But on her other original, “Xmas,” she’s a sad girl, singing a real Christmas blues.

— Thomas Conner

NEW YORK TIMES “HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE” – CD REVIEW

November 28th, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/arts/music/26holiday.html?ref=music

Like gifts themselves, Christmas albums shouldn’t be obligations, though they all too often are. And also like gifts, the ones worth receiving and embracing are those that in spite of the familiar structure, find new ways to deliver old thrills. Or even, sometimes, new thrills. Or even more rarely, something not thrilling, but bracing; not all holiday experiences are cheerful. Here, the pop and jazz critics of The New York Times look for meaning, and hidden presents, in this year’s crop of holiday releases. JON CARAMANICA

SHELBY LYNNE: ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’ (Everso, $12.98). There are 11 songs on “Merry Christmas,” Shelby Lynne’s first holiday album, and almost as many styles: a bluegrass “Christmastime’s a-Coming,” new age flutes on “White Christmas,” and a Bakersfield, Calif.-style “Winter Wonderland.” “Ain’t Nothin’ Like Christmas,” one of Ms. Lynne’s two originals, wouldn’t have sounded out of place on an Elvis Christmas album, and her takes on “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” are smiling. But Ms. Lynne, who flirts with the outskirts of the country mainstream, isn’t a genial singer. She brings bruised, anguished colors to “Silent Night” and “Christmas Time Is Here.” And “Xmas,” her other original, is pure lament. “Christmas makes me sad/And I’m being bad,” Ms. Lynne sings, over questionable smooth-jazz saxophone. “Holiday cocktails make me forget/The gifts that Daddy never opened.” JON CARAMANICA

TLA Review From Sweden

October 2nd, 2010

SHELBY LYNNE får 4/5 i Oskarshamns-Tidningen

62).gm

FACTS
Title :Tears , Lies , and Alibis

Artist:Shelby Lynne

Category :soul

Rating :* * * *
There has been some years now since she released the great album I Am Shelby
Lynne . Filled with cozy soulpop that was her big break .
But apparently she was not happy herself . The years that have passed after
the success has been more applicants and rotande in every corner for an
identity .
And here she is well under way, her in my opinion, perhaps the strongest
album in eleven years. Very acoustic and sparse and gentle people and
soulpop .
Small stories that might not revolutionize , but well embraces the listener
. The sweet country music in a song like Old # 7 are my favorite but there
is more . As the dazzlingly beautiful Like a fool . Give it a chance .

U.K. Press Alert: Feature and FOUR Star review in Maverick

September 18th, 2010

Below, you can read a PDF of the interview feature and four star review, with Alan Cackett from U.K. magazine, Maverick. Release date: Sept. 27th

A great highlight of the review is the end: “This album began with two stars and over a ten day period has now ended up with four – by the time you read this, it might even have reached five. My advice: persevere with it because it just grows and grows in stature and impact.”

Shelby Lynne in Maverick Magazine

September 2010

[Download PDF]

Profiles & Conversations (Executive Edits)

August 2nd, 2010

Over a decade since the visually angelic outlaw received due critical acclaim and shiny awards for her epic exposé “I Am Shelby Lynne”, the aforementioned songstress of Southern grit and essence has struck not only the jugular of the …

Original Link

Don’t Call Her Country! (FAIRFIELD PATCH)

August 2nd, 2010

Shelby Lynne Brings Her Eclectic Songbook to the Fairfield Theatre Company

“I like running my own label. Even if I’m the only artist on it. It’s so much easier for me to be the one who makes decisions, than have a bunch of people who don’t know anything about music, tell me what I should be doing. I’m working on a Christmas album right now. After that, I’m hoping to make a record with my sister. When you’re on a major label, you’re lucky if you can put out one disc a year. I know the kind of music I want to make. So it makes sense that I’m calling the shots.”

If you know anything about feisty and eclectic singer/songwriter, Shelby Lynne, these words, uttered with the faintest traces of an Alabama accent, don’t come as a shock. Since her debut in 1989, Ms. Lynne has exhibited both the good manners and the “Don’t Tread On Me!” spirit of her native South. Every time the record business has tried to bag her as, say, a country singer, she’s gone and recorded John Lennon’s harrowing “Mother,” and made it even more harrowing. Or she’s done an entire album of songs made famous by soul legend Dusty Springfield.

Trying to pigeonhole her would be a losing proposition.

Lynne brings her gorgeous voice, acoustic guitar and savagely-honest songs (most recently appearing on her self-released “Tears, Lies And Alibis”), to the Fairfield Theatre Company on Saturday.

August, as we all know, is  hot as blazes. But Shelby Lynne has that Christmas album on her mind.

“I’ve always wanted to do a record for Christmas. If I was still on a major label, they probably wouldn’t have let me. Or they’d have interfered somehow. I’ve written some original songs for it and done some covers, but the sessions were a joy. I’ve never understood why other artists always say it’s so hard to do Christmas songs when the weather’s warm or whatever. It’s ridiculous. It’s no different than making any other sort of record.”

When asked about her fabled Best New Artist Grammy, in 2000 (right person, wrong category), Lynne is typically tough and practical.

“Sure it was strange to win in that category, like, 13 years after I started recording. But getting a Grammy is really helpful in business terms. First, it’s nice to know that people in the industry have voted for you. But it also helps to promote your name. In some ways you need to be a known commodity in our business. So, if more people know my name, because of the award, and come to my shows, it’s a good thing.”

If you know Lynne, all the attitude and rebel-yell defiance are cool, but what you ultimately care about is the music. On her latest record, she once again serves up songs that mix soul music, pure pop and country in ways that may baffle radio programmers, but thrill fans who don’t need to be spoon-fed sounds one recognizable mouthful at a time. Check out the almost Beach Boys-y “Rains Came,” or the Dusty-In-Memphis groove of “Why Didn’t You Call Me?” and know that every confused playlist geek’s loss is our gain.

And don’t call her country!

“My first big hit was a duet with (country legend) George Jones. As much as it got things started for me, I think it may have confused some listeners. Obviously, I love that kind of music, but I don’t think of myself as a country singer.”

As for the future? Well, there’s that album that Lynne wants to do with her sister, singer/songwriter Allison Moorer. But mostly she has her sights set on letting the people know who she really is and what she actually does.

“I’m always a little surprised, that people come out to see me, knowing my name, but not much about the kind of music I sing. I think playing at a small theatre, just me and my guitar, is a great opportunity to change that. With luck, the people that come because of curiosity, or the Grammy, will leave as something else. Fans, hopefully.”

Shelby Lynne performs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford St., Fairfield. Doors open at 7. Tickets are $42, and FTC members save $10 per ticket. For information, check the Web site, www.fairfieldtheatre.org