Shelby Lynne
When Shelby Lynne left Nashville, she wasn’t planning on coming back. She felt constrained by Music Row and the expectations of the limelight. She was ready to do something else.
Ironically, it took coming back to Music City to craft her most ambitious record yet. With a newfound sobriety, a rescue puppy and an intergenerational community of songwriters and co-producers in her corner, Lynne will return to the Ryman on Thursday to celebrate Consequences of the Crown, a serpentine album that draws as much influence from ’90s R&B as it does Lynne’s career in country music and the intervening heartbreaks.
“I was sick of Los Angeles,” Lynne tells the Scene. “I had stayed there as long as I possibly could. It was never my bag. But what the hell, I did that for a while, and it just kind of put the lid on California for me.” She moved to Nashville to be closer to her sister, fellow artist and songwriter Allison Moorer. Lynne figured she’d write songs for other people, land a publishing deal and continue her life in music at a slower pace.
The muse had other plans. Lynne began working with Karen Fairchild of Little Big Town and fellow accomplished songwriter Ashley Monroe as well as with Grammy-winning engineer Gena Johnson. Lynne co-wrote with Fairchild and Monroe, and all four co-produced what became Consequences of the Crown together. Fairchild knew no other voice could bring these songs to life.
“Karen just said, ‘We need a record from you,’” says Lynne. “So she made the calls — and here we are.”
Shelby Lynne
Consequences chronicles heartbreak in real time. The writing process was not just cathartic for Lynne, but also healing, as the three women “scooped me up.”
Lynne would pull out her bass (“an anti-Nashville thing to do”) and lay down a groove, while Monroe would spin up beats and piano riffs along with the earthy lyrics that fill the album. Then the four hit the studio and made magic happen.
The album stems from Lynne’s long-held desire to make a record built around beats, with a wide range of influences. She mentions Coco Jones, Muni Long and other contemporary R&B artists. But Lynne is a fan of music in all forms, and notes that she is currently enamored of Billie Eilish, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Ray LaMontagne, The Red Clay Strays and “indie rock that never gets a chance.”
“I wanted to do a different kind of record that people wouldn’t necessarily expect,” she says. “So I made a beatbox record, which I’ve always wanted to do. And I did a little bit of that on I Am 25 years ago, but I really couldn’t come back to Nashville and do a chicken-pickin’ record.”
When I speak with Lynne ahead of the Ryman show, she’s still working with bandleader Kenny Greenberg to translate these songs from the studio to the stage. It’s important to make them feel of a piece with the songs from her beloved 1999 album I Am.
“When I figure out what the hell the show is, we’ll make a combo of the two records,” says Lynne. “I have the tracks written down on my whiteboard, and I’m drawing arrows. … ‘Why Can’t You Be?’ [from I Am] is a cousin to ‘Clouds’ [from Consequences], and there’s some beatbox racket noise going on in this record. I’ll be doing my jabbering, saying, ‘All right, now hold up, here’s a new one.’ Boom. I’ve got a keyboard player who’s going to do all those shits and giggles.”
To prep for the show, Lynne, Greenberg and her band holed up in an undisclosed location to rehearse, which she describes as a “little dingy bar” with excellent sound. “It’s always better to go somewhere where you can feel like a rock ’n’ roll environment.”
The shows in the wake of the album, released in August, will also be Lynne’s first shows sober. In spite of her anxiety, she’s looking forward.
“I’m really enjoying the freedom of not having to second-guess what I do ’cause I’m drunk as shit. Being sober, I can walk out there and feel the joy and the energy. It feels wonderful because I don’t have anything to hide behind, and it’s kind of fabulous because I’ll go out there and tell the audience: ‘I’m fucking terrified. Help me.’ And they will. They always have.”
