Finally!! After 7 years of waiting I have finally seen Shelby Lynne live. And she was worth the wait.

After going crazy for her breakout album I AM SHELBY LYNNE - a week or so after she played a gig in London to promote it - I have waited and waited for her to come over again to promote any of the three albums she has released since but nada. A tour was announced to promote her LOVE, SHELBY album but it was cancelled.

But a new album - her tribute to Dusty Springfield JUST A LITTLE LOVIN' - and here she was, actually walking out onto the Festival Hall stage on Friday. Shelby was lookin' pretty damn fierce with tight leather trews, stiletto leather boots, a black t-shirt with gold glitter detailing and a mane of tousled blonde hair. No wonder the Lebanons were hollering out like at a k.d. lang concert of old.
As I had only interviews to go on for the past few years I was a bit worried. In print she always seems testy and combatitive about her career, her frustration with record deals, under-performing in the charts, her liking for booze, her sexuality. She practically walked out of a Guardian one in 2001 when quizzed on her relationship with manager Elizabeth who left her husband Bill Bottrell (producer of I AM SHELBY LYNNE) and moved in with Shelby - and obviously does NOT suffer fools gladly so I was worried how she would be on stage but she had a great stage presence, chatty as all get out and giving out huge smiles for free and she seemed genuinely glad to be back. I hope she was because I don't want her to leave it so long again!

We had a six Dusty songs - "Just A Little Lovin", "Breakfast In Bed", "Willie & Laura-Mae Jones", "I Only Want To Be With You", "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" and "Anyone Who Had A Heart" (yes I know it's tainted with Cilla but Dusty *did* record it in 1964). She has wisely reinterpreted the songs and gives the three big ballads a hushed, after hours feel which works wonderfully. We got the same number of tracks from I AM SHELBY LYNNE - the magnificent "Your Lies", "Leavin'', "Life Is Bad", "Gotta Get Back", "Dream Some" and "Where I'm From". She didn't really have to sing the last one as she betrayed her Alabama roots when speaking in her honey-rich drawl.
The big surprise was she did so few from the other albums - maybe she thought the audience wouldn't know them? A song apiece from LOVE, SHELBY "Jesus On A Greyhound" - one of the few of hers I really dislike - and IDENTITY CRISIS "10 Rocks" and two from SUIT YOURSELF during the encores: her touching tribute to the Cash's "Johnny Met June" and "Iced Tea". We also got a surprise cover of "Polk Salad Annie" but I looked it up just now and it's by her friend Tony Joe White who also wrote "Willie & Laura Mae Jones" and with whom she duetted on her cover of his classic "Rainy Night In Georgia".

So there you go... another favourite singer I can tick off as having seen live and who did not disappoint. Shelby is a singer/songwriter who simply does not fit into the obvious Country pidgeonhole. With her bittersweet songs of love and loss she is out there on her own.

Y'all come back soon now y'hear?