Album Review: Shelby Lynne- Consequences of the Crown

“I just keep on singing the blues” Shelby Lynne drawls in a thick Alabama accent on “Good Morning Mountain.” The song on her 17th album Consequences of the Crown is blue-eyed soul rather than the blues, but the sentiment is irrefutable. Lynne’s bittersweet artistic vision is fully realized on the welcome return to the sound and feel of her intensely personal 1999 classic I Am Shelby Lynne. The divergence between prominent accolades accorded Consequences of the Crown and meager play counts suggests there’s only a small audience for Lynne’s overt references to Ann Peebles, Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick and Bill Withers. Members of an esoteric cult, however, understand that Consequences of the Crown is well worth the quarter-century wait.