The
Curb reissue of
Shelby Lynne's 1995 album,
Restless, is a compelling one. While
Lynne has undergone almost continual -- and mostly positive -- reinvention since she resurfaced with
I Am Shelby Lynne in 2000, it's interesting to hear her on this
Brent Maher-produced slab of swinging-for-the-charts commercial
country. Of course, her voice is a trademark; whether she's singing the
new traditionalist honky tonk of
Maher's own
"Another Chance at Love," Jamie O'Hara's weeper
"Talkin' to Myself Again," or the jazzy
country-pop that is
Rod McGaha's
"I Wish I Knew," the commitment to excellence is total. But these tracks, fine as they are, offer no revelation of
Lynne's true "restlessness," which resides in her own
R&B-tinged hard
country shuffle
"Slow Me Down" and in the numbers she wrote with
Maher and
O'Hara, including the title cut, the
Western swing of
"Reach for the Rhythm," and the hot
jazz gypsy swing of
"Swingtown," which closes the set. Here,
Lynne reveals in spades that her voice has no limitations when it comes to reaching for the margins in classic American music. She can sing
jazz,
blues, and
R&B, and rock a honky tonk with the best of them. In its day,
Restless was dismissed as gimmicky for its stubborn refusal to follow "the format." History has vindicated
Shelby Lynne. That this set would get a second chance when so many of the recordings of her contemporaries have long since been deleted or hit the buck bin is proof of the album's elusive yet enduring excellence. ~ Thom Jurek
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