Bloggerhythms

I've loved Shelby Lynne for a long, long time as numerous posts on Bloggerhythms will make clear, so I actually feel guilty picking a song she didn't write as my favorite by this phenomenal singer-songwriter. "I Only Want To Be With You" is Lynne's cover of Dusty Springfield's first hit that she released way back in 1963. Springfield was the second British artist after The Beatles to have success on the American charts. The British star took the record to #12 in the USA in early 1964 and #4 in England. The album Lynne's cover song came from -  Just a Little Lovin,'   from 2008 - is a lovingly sung, but unpretentious tribute to Springfield featuring nine of her songs and one new Lynne original. The great thing about the album, and especially "I Only Want To Be With You," is Lynne completely remade it in her image instead of trying to copy Springfield who recorded an upbeat, pop song loaded with strings and ho...

I'm one of the many who discovered Shelby Lynne only after hearing her for the very first time with the release of her sixth album, I Am Shelby Lynne , in 2000. Even though it was eleven years after her debut this CD was the reason she won the "Best New Artist" Grammy in 2001. While winning that particular award is hard to explain almost everything this non-traditional, country, singer-songwriter has released from that point on has been uniformly excellent and could have won awards. It says on the cover of Just A Little Lovin' , that it was inspired by the late, great, Dusty Springfield. The idea for this album was suggested to Lynne by her friend, Barry Manilow, while they were discussing Springfield's music. Taking Manilow up on his idea turned out to be a brilliant move. She served up nine Springfield songs, added one of her own, and turned in a perfect performance on every single one. Lynne just doesn't mimic her idol's greatest hits o...

I first became a Shelby Lynne fan when I heard her great turn of the century CD, I Am Shelby Lynne . It was the one where she took control of her own career so she could make music her way. It also began her transition away from being a pure country singer and into a singer-songwriter where her country roots were liberally interspersed with R&B, delta blues, and even some rock and roll. That album remains her classic and catapulted her career into a very special realm. Lynne's followup, 2001's Love, Shelby, was a step backward but happily, she redeemed herself two years later with Indentity Crisis, and Suit Yourself in 2005. Suit Yourself is much looser than most of Lynne's previous work. It often feels like we're sitting in on recording session rehearsals because snippets of conversations and false starts are left uncut on a few of the tracks. Some of the songs were demos she recorded at home and brought into the studio to finish. The rest are full band arr...

Shelby Lynne's fifth album was her first to break away from the Nashville establishment. Anyone who listens to I Am Shelby Lynne, would quickly realize this is the album on which she became the woman who was determined to control her art, her career, and her destiny. This is the set that initially earned Lynne the respect she enjoys today and the reason for this is simple. The disc is as much a blue-eyed soul album spiced with a dash of real blues as it is a country record. It's Dusty Springfield sprinkled with a heaping dose of Bonnie Raitt. Lynne's vocals make all of these self-penned tunes special. Her voice suits this material perfectly. She can coo like a kitten on "Black Light Blue" or wail like a blues queen on "Life Is Bad." The latter comes complete with slide guitar and a vocal style that indicates she may have considered Raitt a mentor. "Your Lies," which opens the album, sounds just like a 1960s hit by the late Springfield. ...

Ever since Shelby Lynne's acclaimed I am Shelby Lynne turned her into a star (sort of) in 2000 one wouldn't be climbing too far out on a limb to say she could be the most outstanding female country artist on the scene today and one of the very best singer-songwriters to ever take a stage or enter a recording studio. She proves it once again with her brief, fifteen minute, five song EP, Thanks . On this fine set of music the native Alabaman continues to demonstrate both her independence, originality, and eclecticism as she genre-jumps from album to album and song to song almost as often as she changes hair styles (and that's a lot if you look at her CD covers). From Texas swing, to roots rock, to gospel, R & B, and more, she has done it all while still keeping her feet firmly planted on her home turf of country music. Thanks is Lynne's followup to the very personal and sparsely produced and arranged Revelation Road . Lynne continues to write intelligent and...

Bloggerhythms' top five CDs for 2011 are more mainstream than in previous years. Two of them are by long time veterans (Shelby Lynne and The Jayhawks) and the other three are releases by relative newcomers and Adele has already reached superstardom. In a year when recent online news stories wrote about the probable death of the CD all of the albums on this list should be purchased in their entirety, not just track by track on iTunes. Overall it was a very good year for recorded music. 1. Dawes – Nothing is Wrong With only their second release these SoCal boys hit paydirt in a big way. Twenty-five year old songwriter Taylor Goldsmith offers a rare combination of pleasing vocals reminiscent of Jackson Browne, melodic songwriting with deep hooks ("Time Spent in Los Angeles"), and intelligent, moving lyrics ("A Little Bit of Everything"). If you're a fan of Hall of Famer Browne this CD is for you. It's the comeback album he never made. The 70s sta...

Anyone who has followed Shelby Lynne closely through the years knows that her irreverence and fierce independence allow the strong-willed singer-songwriter to do what she wants with her career, so the fact that she recorded a Christmas album, something that is nothing more than a commercial venture for many artists, is very surprising. Nevertheless, Merry Christmas , Lynne’s second CD release of 2010, and the second one in a row on her own Everso label, is one of the highlights of all the holiday offerings this year. Lynne has long been known for her outstanding body of original work but with two of her last three albums she has also proven to be a superb interpreter of other people’s music. Just A Little Lovin’ , her 2008 tribute to the late Dusty Springfield, was the first testament to that fact and Merry Christmas is the second. This superbly arranged and produced holiday disc is typical of the singer-songwriter in many ways. The music is as unpretentious as the CD’s title ...

Shelby Lynne , the marvelous country singer-songwriter, continues to produce masterworks such as her most recent release Tears, Lies, and Alibis . Yes, Lynne is a country artist and unfortunately that means many people who don't like the genre will immediately write her off as pure hokum without ever giving her music a listen. If you are one of them, shame on you. The country veteran has always transcended the genre with intelligent songwriting, moody and melodic vocals, and feistiness that is tempered with true emotions. The combination is what has always made her so endearing. This is Lynne's very first self-produced and self-released album, a surprise when you consider how demanding she can be during recording sessions. Because the singer-songwriter can tell the difference between self-indulgence and what works in the studio she turned in a classy disc that ranks among her best releases. The arrangements are perfectly sparse yet she still manages to use a full palette ...

Last week Bloggerhythms posted the first part of the top 10 CDs of the decade and counted down numbers 10 through 6. In case you missed it here is part 1 . Today we continue with the final 5. 5. The Corrs - Home (2006) Nothing I'm writing here about The Corrs is new. I've said before the band would have done far better artistically if they had stuck to their roots and played what is obviously their first love, Celtic folk music, but then they probably wouldn't be millionaires. Here, as a tribute to Jean Corr, their late mother, they celebrate both her memory and their heritage. The siblings took the songbook of Jean's band and added their trademark sound to the twelve tracks (most of them in an acoustic setting) to record Home , the best work in their catalog. 4. The Cat Empire - Two Shoes (2005) There isn't another band in the world as unusual as The Cat Empire. Bloggerhythms always gives points for uniqueness, especially if it's well done, and Two Shoe...

Shelby Lynne is one of my favorite female singers so it was a real treat that I finally had an opportunity to see the country singer perform live. Lynne played most of her new album, Suit Yourself , and the rest of the time she concentrated on the period beginning with her classic 2000 release, I Am Shelby Lynne . She is one of the best vocalists in country music, possessing a voice that lends itself well to both rock & roll and acoustic balladry. Couple that with her composing skills, and a three piece band featuring an excellent lead guitarist in Ben Peeler, and we were all treated to a wonderful night of music. I’ve always been partial to bands over singer-songwriters but Lynne’s lyrical talents, sweet voice, and gift of melody, make her one of the exceptions. Lynne does it all well and she really doesn’t need a band to connect with the audience. The fact that she brought Peeler and a rocking rhythm section with her were just icing on the cake. The highlights were two ...