Tift Merritt Tamborine

Yeah, I've tried to talk to him about Shelby Lynne and he just hates her. Same with Allison Moorer now that she's not shiny pop beast anymore. In general, best to avoid concepts like "worthiness" and "authenticity" with Chuck. And a lot of ILM. Although things are changing around here, getting more indie-worthy-hero-oriented. And that's not for the better.

But I do wanna hear the Merritt album. I am just more interested in her as a songwriter, and if this is a safer smoother album then eh, heard it, them was the cuts on Bramble Rose I didn't like, innit

It's not safer and smoother. Not remotely. I do think the Dusty Springfield comparisons are overstated, and I wouldn't go as far as Eddy and say it's better than I Am Shelby Lynne, but it's a terrific, often tough (even on the ballads) sounding record--gracias Campbell and Drakoulias--that covers the soul/twang/rock waterfront as well as any record I've heard this year. Her songwriting is more economical but still a bit gutsy, and the gospel thowdown that closes the record kills.

(slight revive)

I am enjoying this record and I like her first one too. In the same vein, I also like the album A Girl Called Eddy.

Ha ha, I didn't like A Girl Called Eddy much, though really I wanted to, thanx to their name! Also, I do NOT hate Shelby. I think *I Am Shelby* is okay, albiet way overrated; her suppposed sellout followup album was *underrated*, though, and its pre-release version had what is probably by fave song by her - the complaint about her record label, or radio stations, or whatever it was. (Insert here noize-bored meatheads who remember a fraction of the records I remember whining because I don't remember the name & lyrics of all 10,000 albums in my apartment by heart; they can go fuck themselves.) The followup to Shelby's followup was a big snooze. (I actually liked some of her pre-I Am Shelby western swing stuff, though; I have a copy of some really cool video she did in the early '90s at home somewhere.) Alison I liked okay (and definitely more than Shelby) til her amorphous most recent venture, which Matt loves. None of these artists have ever hit me as especially diverse or risky or intense or transportive, though, so yeah, I tend to prefer them when the hooks actually stick to my gills and the album sounds good *before* 2 in the morning. And Tift's new one has more of those hooks than Alison's new one does, and more than Shelby has ever had. (As singers, per se, I'd rate them about equal, I suppose.) Also worth checking out, in the same genre: Gigi Dover's *Gigi*, which I think I prefer even to Tift's latest. (And Joe Dee Messina and KT Oslin and Lacy Jay Dalton actually did this Dusty Springfield/Bobby Gentry/Jeannie C. Riley type kinda stuff way better than any of these gurls, but never mind.)

OK, I just checked -- the great track on the unreleased version of *Love Shelby* is "Star Broker," a rocking sort of "Star Star/Star Fucker" update about the record industry, and just about the only time since her comeback that she hasn't sounded way too reserved and held-back and careful for my tastes; i.e., just about the only time she really sounded like she was letting loose like her drunken crazy rep suggests she should (and like I'd prefer her to do even if she didn't have such a rep). A good collection of her pre-comeback-hype years is *Epic Recordings,* which I'd probably take over any of her last three albums. *Identity Crisis* is the album that completely put me to sleep. And I'm pretty sure the early '90s video hit I'm referring to is "Feeling Kind of Lonely Tonight," which I believed involved riverboats rolling on the river and mint juleps and such.

(well, actually, even saying that Shelby really let loose on "star broker" is probably a gross exagerration, to be honest. but at least she *hints* at wanting to let loose in that one. which is a start.)

(and, as soul-blues c&w divas go, terri gibbs's best early '80s stuff -- "somebody's knockin'," "ashes to ashes" -- was even better than anything k.t. or lacy jay or joe dee ever did, by the way.)