The vulgar photo on the case suggests the worst. Fortunately, the music of Shelby Lynne appears to have the necessary class. She already made an impression with her previous album I Am Shelby Lynne, on which she managed to shake off her country past for good, to make a record for a unique mix of pop, rock, folk and soul. On Love, Shelby she puts even more emphasis on rock, partly due to the influence
… of producers Glen Ballard (Alanis Morisette) and Bob Clearmountain (Bryan Adams). Now and then the album sounds a bit too 'cool' but with class songs like Bend and Killin 'Kind this approach really works. Shelby nestles comfortably in the line of Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt and Joan Osborne, whose One Of Us undoubtedly served as an example for Shelby's song Jesus On A Greyhound. Shelby went through a lot in her childhood: she lost her parents when her father shot her mother and then killed herself. The closing track - an oppressive performance of John Lennon's Mother - is given a poignant charge by this fact. (MS)more