***
The only way Shelby Lynne could’ve made this more of a solo album would’ve been by “hand-delivering each copy,” said Randy Lewis in LATimes.com. The 43-year-old country maverick not only wrote, sang, and produced all the songs but played every instrument. And with these harrowing tunes about “alienation, abandonment, and murder-suicide,” the choice feels natural. At least as noteworthy as Lynne’s go-it-alone approach is the fact that she sings openly here about an event that has long defined her: When she was 17, her father murdered her mother, then killed himself, leaving Lynne to raise her younger sister. “Heaven’s Only Days Down the Road” is a “startlingly direct” song about the tragedy, said Ken Tucker in NPR.org. But on that track and throughout the album, Lynne’s sorrow “rarely curdles into self-pity.” While there are songs that would have benefited from the presence of a full band, Lynne’s voice negates any sense of a void. It’s “an extraordinary instrument.”
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