“The first time I heard Shelby, I cried,” Hill, who recorded “Keep Walkin’ On” with Lynne in 1995, said in an email. “Shelby bleeds soul and honesty in her gifts, completely unaware of her power,” she added. “Once you realize you are telling your truth without judgment, then and only then you are free, no boundaries. This is the very essence of Shelby Lynne, and I’ve learned an unmeasurable amount of freedom just simply by hearing her voice.”
It was Bottrell, the producer of “I Am Shelby Lynne,” who finally unlocked her pain. The unspoken brutality of her past — in 1986, Lynne’s father killed her mother, then turned the gun on himself — was always sidestepped in Nashville. But it had long smoldered inside this wafer-thin artist.
“Bill Bottrell taught me pretty much everything I know about songwriting; having the courage to write my life was his idea,” Lynne said. “I knew I wanted to write, and he said, ‘It’s your life.’ I figured it out. Why else would I do this? I’m not going to make [expletive] up.”
Ill-prepared for the success of “I Am,” released first in the United Kingdom in 1999, then in the United States several months later, Lynne continues to joke about “the leather and liquor tour” with Matchbox Twenty to support the breakout collection. “It still felt underground, most of it,” she recalled. “But I kind of threw a lot of things away, made some big mistakes.”
Her voice trailed off. Lynne, who easily chatted about topics including Peter Guralnick’s book “Sweet Soul Music,” kudzu, hotels along the road, forgotten industry executives, Billie Eillish and Beyoncé, was thoughtful and curious, but honest about how life goes. “I’ve learned a lot since I was 30, even getting lost along the way. Drinking, not thinking and taking things for granted, those mistakes, running out of money, hardheadedness,” she said. “I drank too much, and then when I couldn’t do anything about it, I just drank more.”
Living in the desert outside Palm Springs, she could do things herself, tour a bit and make ends meet. But time passed. She realized she and her sister should be closer. She didn’t expect her move back to Nashville to open such charged creative collaborations, nor did she foresee the abrupt end of an intense, if brief relationship.
Read More: Shelby Lynne Meets Her Moment, Again
