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Review: Shelby Lynne at Antone’s
Probably because it was Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien’s birthday, the vibe around Shelby Lynne’s set was odd Wednesday at Antone’s. The crowd had an ample representation of overzealous fans, who held Lynne’s hand and didn’t want to let go and engaged her in conversation to a distracting degree at times. Then there was the ample woman outside who flashed one of the doormen. I think we’re Keeping Austin Weird enough, people.
Lynne herself seemed a little shaky at the outset, plowing into the songbook of O’Brien — better known as Dusty Springfield — and her album-length mash note to the late, beloved ‘60s British soul singer, “Just a Little Lovin.’” Wearing a Waterloo Records T-shirt and jeans rather than a cocktail dress, Lynne looked a little frazzled or road-weary or something on the title track, but she and her four-piece band managed to establish the tone for the evening — celebratory in a polite, piano-bar kind of way.
On albums such as “Dusty in Memphis” and “A Girl Called Dusty,” the arrangements (strings, horns, kitchen sink) could be as poofy as Springfield’s Marge Simpson-worthy beehive. Lynne and producer Phil Ramone’s take on the tunes — recorded on terribly retro 2-inch tape — is more like someone whispering vulnerable somethings in your ear.
An excess of reverence for the material could have made this homage feel like it was cut in a mausoleum, but Lynne’s default is sassy and devil-may-care, which somehow made her runs through “Anyone Who Had a Heart, “Breakfast in Bed” and “Willie and Laura Mae Jones” all the more convincing. First packaged, unhappily, as a Nashville belter, Lynne has also explored pop and R&B. But as “Willie and Laura Mae” convincingly demonstrated Wednesday, she’s most comfortable where Springfield excelled — the nexus of country and soul. “Your Lies,” the lead-off track to 2000’s “I Am Shelby Lynne,” sounded for all the world like a Springfield tune. She’s needed to make this record her whole career.
In a live setting, however, all the chardonnay and candlelight the record exudes could get a little monotonous, so now and then Lynne strapped on a Telecaster and rocked it up a bit with some of her own material, more so as the set closed in on two hours. Standouts: “Johnny Met June” (which might have been called “When Cash Met Carter”) and “Where I’m From.”
The woman has been burned so many times it’s a wonder she’s still at it, but Lynne’s talents as a singer and songwriter are as formidable as ever, her ambition undented. Wednesday’s show was, strange to say, quietly audacious. But if I’d known it was Dusty’s birthday — and it really was — I’d have baked a cake.
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