Read the Introduction to "A Leap of Faith: 366 Songs in 366 Days"
Shelby Lynne is good…really good. She’s so good in her craft of songwriting and constructing records that we take her for granted. For the last fifteen years, she has released *** albums and there isn’t a bad one in the bunch, not even the big label push of 2001’s Suit Yourself produced by Glen Ballard. Despite winning the Best New Artists Grammy in 2001 (it reflects the absurdity of the award and the show produced for it because she had released four previous albums), she found her niche in making small and personal records beginning with 2003’s Identity Crisis. It was the May 2005 release of Suit Yourself that made her an artist I will forever follow.
Suit Yourself can’t be defined in one genre, but many…blues, rock, country and it goes to the folk music of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Besides the deeply personal moments, the fly-on-the-wall recording itself is full of revealing moments with live in-studio banter and even after the final song (“Track 12”); you can hear the “stop” button hit the control board. Something overlooked on 2001's "Love, Shelby" was the extraordinary songwriting on it. Her lyrics always cut deep and they should never be confused with a sexpot image or pop superstardom. On Suit Yourself the only thing not completely naked on it is the album cover. The album strikes a fine balance with songs full of heartbreak and happiness. They are entrenched in the partnership of love; the good and the bad. The vocals, sound, mix, lyrics and heart and soul leave nothing to the imagination, because she lays it all out for us right here in the songs; raw and real. Take one listen to the yearning she feels on “Where Am I Now”. The song follows the narrator through one of life’s eternal searches, a place of comfort in life, whether it’s life on the road in a rock band or merely searching for an eternal soul mate that will walk that line with you.
My favorite song on the record, one that I’ve listened to continually for the better part of a decade is “Johnny Met June”, inspired by none other than Johnny and June Carter Cash. In late 2005, after the release of Suit Yourself, Lynne played the mother of Cash in the Oscar winning film on his life Walk the Line starring Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix as the infamous couple. Lynne’s connection to the Man In Black goes much deeper than a celluloid cameo. Sitting in her house in September of 2003, she heard on the radio that Johnny Cash had passed away and immediately went into her home studio and recorded the album’s crowning achievement-“Johnny Met June”. The song is about Johnny going to heaven and meeting June all over again. It’s unpretentious yet profound. There is not a single line in the song that feels forced or cliché. In fact, she tried re-recording the vocal a number of times without success, opting for the vocal from her demo as it fit the heart and emotion of the moment. This is the album’s most simple, sweet and evocative song. Through death their relationship was renewed and they can once again start all over again. It gives you hope and comfort that in death there may very well be life.
Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMUSIC Network. He has covered hundreds of concerts for antiMUSIC for the last several years. His daily writings can be read at The Screen Door. He can be contacted at tonyk AT antiMUSIC DOT com and can be followed on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment