Shelby Lynne had to compete with something huge last Wednesday at the Beachland, herself and the last show she did there. At the time she was supporting her Dusty Springfield tribute album “Just a Little Lovin’,” and that show was one of the best I have ever seen at the Beachland. This time around she’s touring in support of her new album of original songs “Tears, Lies, and Alibis,” and I was worried that show would be a bit of a letdown.
Fortunately, for the most part, it wasn’t. Lost in all the good publicity and vibe she got from the Springfield tribute album was the fact that Shelby Lynne is a great singer/songwriter whose own work stands very well on its own. Last Wednesday’s show featured songs from the new album, the best of her older original music, and one song from the Dusty album. Backed by only a guitar and bass, each one was slightly stripped down and that suited the almost capacity crowd fine. The new songs sounded very good, including a couple of heartbreaking ballads “Alibi” and “Like a Fool”; a tribute to mobile homes “Airstream”; and a nod to whiskey drinkers “Old #7.” The highlights of her older tunes were “Where I’m From” (“I’m never far away from an Alabama state of mind”), and “When Johnny met June.” She closed the show with the only song she did from the Springfield album, her haunting version of “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” with her doing the first verse acappella. All of it was wonderful.
After years of bouncing around record labels, she put the new album out on her own. I wish her good luck with it, she definitely deserves it. The only negative of the evening where the self centered jerks in the audience who thought they had a personal one on one relationship with Shelby Lynne, yelling out “I Love You’s” and requests, even while she was telling a story between songs. Where do these idiots come from? Haven’t they ever been to a concert before?
For more about Shelby Lynne and her music visit http://www.shelbylynne.com. As always, there are a number of great show coming to the Beachland Ballroom, which can be found at http://www.BeachlandBallroom.com.
Greg Cielec is a local writer who covers mostly music and sports for a variety of publications and websites. He is also a full time English and creative writing teacher at Streetsboro High School; an adjunct professor at BGSU Firelands College and Lakeland Community College; and a football coach at John Carroll University.
He has published two books of fiction, My Cleveland Story (1998) and Home and Away Games (2006), and the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Michael Heaton has called him “the Mark Twain of Cleveland.” Check out his website and blog at http://www.GregCielec.com.