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Lynne Travels Dusty's Trails
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Published: July 10, 2008
There's a slight pause on the other end of the telephone line, the kind of pause that says, "Did you really just ask that?"
It seemed innocent enough. Shelby Lynne was asked who had the final say on song selection for her latest album, a Dusty Springfield tribute titled "Just a Little Lovin'": her or legendary producer Phil Ramone (Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra).
After a few seconds that seem like hours, she answers, "Well, I suspect you know I did."
Lynne survived years of Nashville's failed attempts to make her a cookie-cutter country star only to emerge as a singular, follow-the-muse artist with 2000's "I Am Shelby Lynne." And she didn't get there by letting others lead her.
But still, Ramone has enough Grammys and gold and platinum records, he probably needs a separate mansion to house them.
"When we decided to do the record, I made a list of songs and he made a list, but ultimately I made the decisions," Lynne says.
"We swapped notes and determined I needed to do the songs I loved the most, the ones I felt I could make my own," she says.
Lynne did her homework for the album, immersing herself in the catalog of Springfield.
"I knew a lot of her stuff, but to do it right I had to reach back and listen to the whole body of work," Lynne says.
Springfield's career began with folk group The Springfields in the early '60s and includes hits such as "I Only Want to Be With You," "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" and her 1987 collaboration with the Pet Shop Boys, "What Have I Done to Deserve This?"
It's a lot of material to work through, not to mention narrow down to the nine songs Lynne chose for the album.
"It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be," Lynne says.
Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" was the definitive version, Lynne says, so it was out. So was "Wishin' and Hopin'," which Lynne tactfully describes as "not my favorite song."
Some of the choices were songs Lynne knew in other versions, such as "How Can I Be Sure," a hit for the Rascals, and "Willie and Laura Mae Jones," which Lynne knew from the original version by its writer, Tony Joe White.
Comparisons to Springfield, particularly her 1968 pop-soul classic "Dusty in Memphis," have been a constant for Lynne since "I Am Shelby Lynne." Diving this deeply into Springfield's music might have been treacherous, but Lynne does indeed turn familiar numbers into new experiences.
Part of that is due to the stripped-down arrangements, worked out in the studio by Lynne and a four-piece band.
"When we went in to make the record, we had no arrangements, no idea, just a list of songs," Lynne says. "We looked at the list and said, Well, hell, let's start with 'Just a Little Lovin'.'"
"It went down so organically," Lynne says. "We just got a beat and a groove and a key and let it happen. It started becoming a record.
"I don't like to plan too much," Lynne says. "I want the music to lead us."
The small combo emphasizes the differences between Lynne and Springfield. Where Springfield turned "Anyone Who Had a Heart" into an earth-shaking lament, Lynne sings it with a quiet ache.
Similarly, Lynne's version of "I Only Want to Be With You" turns Springfield's brash declaration into a subtle, seductive come-on.
There's one Lynne original on the album, "Pretend," cut with just Lynne on vocals and Dean Parks on guitar.
"We took a vote," Lynne says of the decision to put her song on the album. "If it's not good enough, it goes."
It stayed.
ON TOUR
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: Tampa Theatre, 711 Franklin St., Tampa
TICKETS: $30 and $39.50; box office, (813) 274-8982
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