Lynne Does Springfield On New Album

Billboard.com/October 12, 2007, 9:55 AM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.


Shelby Lynne delves into the Dusty Springfield songbook on her new album, "Just a Little Lovin'," due Feb. 5. Nine of the 10 tracks were recorded by Springfield, including "Breakfast in Bed," "Anyone Who Had a Heart," the title song and "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me."

The album, produced by Phil Ramone, is rounded out by a solitary Lynne original, "Pretend." It was recorded straight to analog tape at Los Angeles' Capitol Studio A. The project serves as the Lost Highway debut for Lynne, who has recorded her past two albums for Capitol.

In an odd twist, Lynne credits Barry Manilow with the idea to focus on Springfield. "Dusty Springfield was a soulful singer," Lynne writes on her MySpace site. "You can't ever fill her shoes. So I just set out to sing songs we all want to hear again. The road map I followed when cutting these, was the one she made years ago. It was easy. I just sang and let the songs do the work."

Lynne will perform material from the album at a handful of preview shows this fall, including Oct. 30 in Los Angeles, Nov. 1 in San Francisco, Nov. 5 in Seattle, Nov. 13 in Nashville and Nov. 15 in Los Angeles.

Here is the track list for "Just a Little Lovin'":

"Just a Little Lovin'"
"Anyone Who Had a Heart"
"You Don't Have To Say You Love Me"
"I Only Want To Be With You"
"The Look of Love"
"Breakfast in Bed"
"Willie and Laura Mae Jones"
"I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore"
"Pretend"
"How Can I Be Sure"

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USA pressing with tracklisting above:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000ZK53CA/?tag=imwan-20

UK pressing with one bonus track, "Wishin' And Hopin'":
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00114XRW2/?tag=imwan-21

great voice.

it will interesting to hear her do this material, she definitely has the pipes.

renny

i agree that shelby has a great voice. you can hear some sound clips at her myspace page (myspace.com/shelbylynne), which sound very, very good!

she's also one of the few singers that can do justice to dusty's work. just wish she could find more than 10 tracks! she should have remade the entire "dusty in memphis" album, and added additional dusty tracks to it... oh well, no one asked me!

This sounds very cool.

I agree that Shelby has the pipes to pull this off. This is all the more logical because Dusty Springfield's body of work (a healthy, genre-blurring mix of country, rock, blues, folk, etc.) was an obvious influence on Shelby Lynne.

just found out that shelby contributes to marc cohn's latest cd, "join the parade" (see thread here). she contributes backing vocals to one tune ("let me be your witness") and an excellent harmony vocal to another ("giving up the ghost"). another favourite of mine, n'dea davenport (of brand new heavies) contributes backing vocals to the title song. an excellent release all around by marc.

BUMP ~ added cover art and pre-order link to Patrick's opening post. (Beautiful cover, isn't it?)

shelby lynne is a beautiful woman.

renny

"Inspired by Dusty Springfield", indeed.

Shelby Lynne is indeed a beautiful woman, renny and this beauty goes a long way to furthering her career. She certainly has "the look" to make it in this increasingly talentless industry. While she certainly can sing, I would not put her prowess in that regard anywhere near on par with those who are known primarily for their voice and not their looks, which Shelby Lynne is certainly mostly known for. She has arguably, of course, only had one decent album of originals and has lived off of that potential ever since. Perhaps that is why she chose an album of covers this time.

james,

arguably, of course.

renny

Renny, you must admit that following her breakthrough album, she kind of went the sex symbol route--am I wrong? I never hear anybody, when referencing great female voices, say, man, you need to check out Shelby Lynne. Amy Winehouse is always referred to by her voice, not her looks. That's all I'm saying.

When I think of Shelby Lynne I think of both her voice and her looks, but the sad truth is that I hadn't really thought much about her at all recently. Maybe this album will put her back on the radar. I would rather she had done a "Dusty In Memphis"-type album of newer material, but I guess these tribute albums have a built-in audience, so who can blame her.

i know i'm in the minority here, but i really liked "love, shelby" a lot. and "identity crisis" and "suit yourself" are also very good.

and looks totally aside i'd rather listen to shelby lynne sing anytime anywhere over amy winehouse. it's no contest for me.

renny

I completely agree. Love, Shelby was great.

Actually, I like all of her stuff. I think that her tendency to "genre hop" has kept her from being more successful. Personally, I like the variety. Her early country stuff is quite good. Although, my favorites are I Am Shelby Lynne and Love, Shelby.

I am really looking forward to the Dusty Springfield tribute. She should knock that one out of the park.

gotta add my two cents! i, too, thought "love, shelby" was great -- especially the 13-track promo that i was able to get in advance of the album coming out -- those extra songs and different sequencing made a big difference. i admit i was taken aback by the cover photography, and it still seems out of character for shelby, but never judge a book (cd) by it's cover! my favourite albums are the same as yours warren, though i also liked "temptation" a lot. i am less partial to her early country albums and her last capital album ("suit"). personally i'll take shelby over amy winehouse any day, who i find to be totally overrated...

Here's another contribution from the peanut gallery . . .

In my opinion, Shelby's best (and most consistent) albums are I Am Shelby Lynne and Suit Yourself. Most of her early albums were spotty straight-country affairs because she did not yet have creative artistic control over her music.

Some of her more recent albums (with the two notable exceptions listed above) unwisely tried to sex up her image (at the expense of the music) and ended up alienating much of her loyal fan base.

While Ms. Lynne is obviously easy on the eyes, I would not lump her together with other attractive (but less talented) "stars." She has much more substance than that.

For you Dusty fans.... from Shelby Lynne's MYSpace page




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One day back in the Spring of ’05, I received an e-mail from Barry Manilow. We had met at a Grammy function a few years back. Turns out he digs my music. So we've kept in touch over the last couple of years. In Barry's e-mail he asked me if I had ever considered covering the Dusty Springfield songbook. I didn't respond at that time. I had just released my latest record on Capitol called Suit Yourself and was about to take off on the road for a few months. I couldn't wrap my head around anything but going on the road. But, somewhere in the back of my brain I kept the thought closely tucked away.

It wasn’t until May of ‘06 when I went to my manager Betty and asked her what she thought about the idea of recording the Dusty songs. She liked the idea, and thought I should do it. The thing is, I didn't want to just record these songs, I wanted to make the recording simple and important.

Over drinks in a dark bar in Hollywood I put my cards on the table. The record company man told me that they didn't know what to do with the last record I made. We sat there and tossed around bullshit for an hour or so. Round two began and we had some more drinks. We were just getting fuzzy and not a lot was accomplished. Towards the end of a frustrating evening I remember saying, "Hell, I'm just going to call Barry Manilow and cut the Dusty Springfield songs! Maybe somebody will like that! Everybody loves Dusty!" Record company man almost dropped his drink, got all saucer eyed and said, "Well, I can see getting behind that." I laughed out loud. Record men respond when you talk about Dusty Springfield. Capitol was ready, but I wasn't in a hurry. I needed the perfect producer, and hadn't figured that part out yet. I needed someone who would understand that these songs stand the test of time, and that Dusty Springfield is timeless. We thought of every producer from all walks of music. It was such an important call to make. One slip up with the wrong guy and this could turn out to be just another cover record sounding like it was made for all the wrong reasons. It was tough tossing this around. Then one afternoon Betty mentioned the guy who would understand me. He would allow me more room in the studio, and not just being the girl singer. He would choose the right band.

So, I picked up the phone and called Phil Ramone. I said, “I want to cut the Dusty Springfield songs.” He said, "I think we can do that." We talked on the phone for several months staring in July of ‘06. I'd call him with my thoughts about the songs I loved, and we exchanged and compared our ideas. We were excited. Capitol was chomping at the bit and wanted it out before the end of the year, but I still wanted to wait. So I told Phil that we should cool off until the first of the year to start recording. Let's get through the holidays and start fresh. Also, I wanted to work with recording engineer Al Schmitt, because this record had to sound perfect.

January ‘07 finally came along. We all gathered at the Capitol Records building Studio A. The thought of having Capitol Studio A, Phil Ramone, Al Schmitt, these killer musicians and Dusty Springfield was nerve racking, but I knew I was up to the task. Phil had assembled a group of four guys; Greg Field on drums, Dean Parks on guitar, Rob Mathes on keyboards and Kevin Axt on Bass. We had what we called a "menu" of songs to cut, so we started at the top. I had wanted to record at the Capitol building my whole career and this was the album to do it. All of the drama I had endured with Capitol Records up to this point finally came to an end. The very week we started recording this album, Capitol Records was no more. My deal with them ended, and for a while this record and I were without a label. That's where Lost Highway enters the picture. When they heard it, they loved it just the way it was. Plain and simple. Cut to tape and zero frills. So, we had a deal.

Dusty Springfield was a soulful singer. You can't ever fill her shoes. So I just set out to sing songs we all want to hear again. The road map I followed when cutting these, was the one she made years ago. It was easy. I just sang and let the songs do the work. I'm so glad I did. Dusty inspired it all.

The UK will get a bonus track, Wishin' and Hopin.'

British pressing at Amazon USA:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00114XRW2/?tag=imwan-20

British pressing at Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00114XRW2/?tag=imwan-21

hey dean, thanks for the word. i recently found a download of this, so i will most definitely order the import!

i am listening to "just a little lovin" as i type this.

all i can say is WOW!

damn this girl can sing.

the arrangements are top-notch.

looking for an album to sit down and have a bottle of wine to with your wife, this is it.

i'll never understand why shelby lynne isn't huge.

renny

p.s, $9.99 at best buy with a 2 song DVD that includes the japanese bonus song "wishin and hopin". for those of you who can record DVD to CD you got it made!

FYI - my best buy had 1 copy of this and i got it at 2:30. one copy!

another thing.

i bought mine at best buy which had the bonus DVD. it is in a digipak (ala joe jackson's "rain"), it has no booklet.

do the non-DVD one's come in a jewel case?

do they have a booklet?

renny

Wow. This is an absolutely beautiful album. And at no point does it seem like a copy of Dusty's work.