Shelby Lynne hovers in Dusty Springfield’s shadow despite an intimate Chicago crowd

March 29, 2008, at Park West

By Genevieve Diesing
Published: March 31st, 2008 | 9:40am

As many concertgoers know, there is a difference between a singer and a performer — and it’s too bad when it's discovered that a musician is the former.

Those who saw Shelby Lynne in Chicago on March 29, 2008 must have been similarly disappointed. The Grammy Award–winning artist’s flawless and powerful voice filled the room effortlessly, but the country star looked lonely on the stage. Even with a four-piece band backing her up, Lynne's low-key set was stilted by her stiff stance at the mic and generally unmoving delivery.

Lynne sampled tracks from Just a Little Lovin’ (Lost Highway), her 2008 tribute-album to Dusty Springfield. The crowd was made up mostly of couples nuzzled over drinks, and the combination of the intimate audience and Springfield’s love songs should have been romantic, rather than boring. But Lynne lacks Springfield’s spark, and although the pretty blonde was visually arresting in a blazer, T-shirt, and jeans, her persona was too small for her voice. The singer’s snoozy renditions of Dusty classics such as “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me” would have been better suited to a lounge than a concert hall.

This all is probably inconceivable to Lynne’s many hardcore fans, but others might expect more from a 39-year-old with 12 albums under her belt, who also was named Best New Artist at the 2001 Grammys. Isn’t she capable of spicing it up a bit?

To be fair, Lynne warmed up a bit mid-set. The blazer came off and she began engaging the crowd: “This is called the Windy City, but look at my hair; it’s called the frizzy city.” The sincerity of “Johnny Met June,” Lynne’s tribute to Johnny Cash, was the missing link in her previous lackluster performances. ”He waited a while he knew that he would / He was gonna hang around here for as long as he could,” she sang. “The days went by and hours idle passed / He was never sure just how long he would last.” Lynne — who played Carrie Cash in the 2005 Cash biopic Walk the Line — had briefly found her element.

Too bad this all came crashing down when Lynne chose to sing her 1999 “Black Light Blue.” The feigned passion she poured into the Springfield covers reappeared in the song’s almost comical lyrics: “The loners lonely end / in the shifting sand oasis / Black light blue / cock-a-doodle-do.” Cock-a-doodle-do? I want my two hours back.