Shelby Lynne: Revelation Road
Lynne not only wrote, sang, and produced all the songs on Revelation Road, she also played every instrument.
***
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.”
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Israel: Losing the American public
Feature A recent poll finds American support for Israel's military action in Gaza has fallen from 50% to 32%
-
Unmaking Americans
Feature Trump is threatening to revoke the citizenship of foreign-born Americans. Could he do that?
-
EPA: A bonfire of climate change regulations
Feature The Environmental Protection Agency wants to roll back its 'endangerment finding,' a ruling that lets the agency regulate carbon emissions