I Am Shelby Lynne has the feel of the artist trying to find her own voice, combining different genres of music to try and establish an original sound of her own. The result is a smooth, winsome, perfect-for-summer album that is sometimes melancholy like a humid southern night, sometimes as breezily lighthearted as a child skipping down a sunny street humming to herself while idly rapping a stick on a white picket fence.

'Your Lies', the album's opener, recreates Phil Spector's wall of sound, sounding like a ballad you might have expected from a sixties girl group. It's not an indicator of what the rest of the album is like, however, and compared to the other songs 'Your Lies', despite its merit, doesn't fit comfortably.

The rest of the album evokes the styles of established female artists such as Lucinda Williams, Dusty Springfield, and sometimes Sheryl Crow. The songs that most resemble Lucinda Williams, 'Life Is Bad', 'Why Can't You Be', and 'Where I'm From' (with its playful chorus tinged with Cajun French patois) being the most obvious examples, are all excellent, hard-edged attempts at country-blues, but compared to Williams' formidable lyric-writing talent, Shelby Lynne can't compete...yet ('Life Is Bad' is the most hackneyed of the album's ten songs). She's off to a pretty good start, though.

Where Shelby Lynne really shines is when combining the Lucinda Williams element with a smooth-as-silk soul treatment that rivals Dusty Springfield's Dusty In Memphis album. 'Leavin'', 'Thought It Would Be Easier', the wonderfully catchy 'Gotta Get Back', and the album's standout track 'Dreamsome' have the potential of attracting a strong crossover audience. Not quite country, not quite blues, not quite soul, but all-around good music. Who needs genres, anyway?

I Am Shelby Lynne is uneven at times (flawed for all the right reasons), but it looks like this is only the beginning, with Shelby Lynne reintroducing herself to the music world, this time on her own terms, hence the title. Give her an A+ for effort, A- for execution. The album's very good, and I'd bet the next one will be even better.

near-perfect pop-country-soul-blues classic
I love this unique melding of styles. Leavin` is as glorious as Al Green. Beautiful production, good strong songs, leaves you wanting more. In the days of vinyl, this would have been hailed as a perfect album and sold huge quantities.

Shelby at her most expressive !
Shelby Lynne is country muisic's ever changing template chameleon. She backs down from no one and quite possibly doesn't give a damn where her music takes her. A raunchy title alike "I Am Shelby Lynne" sounds more like a name for a late night infomercial then the work of a musical experimentation. Don't be fooled , listen !

Lynne's frustration and hostility in these songs could be as autobiographical as any musician attempts to portray with their music. I also find it convincing that Lynne is one extremly rare artist where no matter what genre she is expressing in her music it never sounds artificial. Everytime I hear the somber "Life Is Bad", I often wonder if Mick Jagger forgot to add it to the set list of "Exile On Main St.". Many artists will claim to be expressive with musical individuality but only the good one's actually have an identity.

Lynne's songwriting, along with help from Producer Bill Bottrell strongly emphases its collaboration. At no point do I feel distraught with this record. Lynne has an ear for music, something that should never be taken for granted in an era where musicians are bombs and the importance sometimes lacks control. Serious art should't be denied but sometimes you can't always get what you want. Lynne tries, she deeply ventures into areas unknown. That's all I can say about any attained artist.

Good album
Shelby Lynne's career really took off with this album. After years of trying to break through in Nashville, she went away from her country stylings to this. Working with Bill Botrell, they crafted this album which is a piece of soul, pop, rock, and country all in one that is all Shelby's style. The production is a little overdone at times, but the songs make up for it. Comparisons are easy to make, the influences are obvious at times on the set, but she gives it her own flair. She wrote all the songs here, there's not a dud among any of the 10 songs. Favorites of mine include Leavin, Thought It Would Be Easier, Life Is Bad, Black Light Blue, and Why Can't You Be. A really eclectic and interesting album.
The boldly named I Am Shelby Lynne may serve as an introduction to a gifted vocalist for most, but the one-time Nashville phenom has more than a decade of recording experience under her belt. Still, in many ways this is an introduction to a new talent. This time out, the Alabama-reared singer-songwriter refused to live up to anyone's expectations but her own, expertly melding soul, rock, pop, and country strains into an eye-opening set that demands to be addressed on its own terms. --Steven Stolder
Shelby Lynne is an anachronism in the best sense of the word. Alabama-born, this twentysomething singer is in love with classic pop and soul, the kind sung by Dusty in Memphis and Aretha in Muscle Shoals. Working here with producer Bill Bottrell, Lynne has fashioned a remarkable album of orchestral epics ("Your Lies"), lazy-afternoon dance music ("Thought It Would Be Easier"), and gorgeous, bluesy ballads ("Lookin' Up," "Black Light Blue"). Most of the album's 10 songs are firmly rooted in the '60s and '70s, but Bottrell's production and Lynne's still-wet-from-sex voice guarantee that the album sounds time-capsule fresh instead of past-expiration-date retro. While Lynne has made fine albums before--1993's big-band and Western-swing CD Temptation is particularly good--I Am Shelby Lynne is the best work yet by a singer as stubbornly committed to musical tradition, and as defiantly out of step with country music trends, as another former Nashville maverick, Lyle Lovett. --Keith Moerer