Shelby Lynne

At Richard’s on Richards on Saturday, April 26

It’s a rare artist who sets out to add an older demographic to her fan base. But there was Shelby Lynne, at a packed Richard’s on Richards on Saturday night, signing autographs for the over-50 set in the front row. One signature, in fact, landed on the vinyl version of her new album, Just a Little Lovin’—a sublime collection of tunes made famous by Dusty Springfield, and therefore leaning heavily on Burt Bacharach–era songs.

Vinyl looms large in Lynne’s ethos, from the New York Times op-ed piece she wrote a few months back, extolling the superiority of black plastic on a sunny afternoon, to her on-stage T-shirt, emblazoned with pictograms declaring the lowly iPod to be no equal to the mighty LP.

Not quite 40 herself, Lynne informed the enthralled crowd (which also had its share of 20-something hipsters) that she was thrilled to have her first release on the old format since “They stopped makin’ ’em just before I started puttin’ out albums.” Indeed, the Alabama-born singer was on a different track back in the 1990s, creating radio hits and would-be radio hits before deciding to pursue a much quirkier, small-label approach. Today, her fine original songs freely mix jazz, country, blues, Stax/Volt R & B, and roots-rock influences.

Lynne’s taste is even more eclectic than that of her younger sister Allison Moorer. And you could say she’s been listening to the same stuff that’s been livening up Cat Power’s act these days. Lynne’s band is unbeatable in this loose-limbed, southern-soul style. She offered only five extracts from the Dustylicious new record, from the title cut (actually a Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil number) to Bacharach’s “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, and they masterfully displayed her skills at pulling drama and variety from a basic four-piece outfit. As the set developed, the powerhouse vocalist took lengthier pauses in the songs, with the group always coming in just in time to pull things together.

With solid support from drummer Bryan Owings, bassist Brian Harrison, and former Vancouverite Randy Leago on keyboards and raspy flute, the emphasis was on the blond-maned leader’s acoustic and electric guitars. But plenty of star time was left over for lead man John Jackson (late of Bob Dylan and Lucinda Williams), who either sliced through the percolating sound with slide on his shiny orange Gretsch or added nimble filigree on an old Gibson flat-top.

The second half of the shortish program concentrated on Lynne’s originals, with a quiet stop on the mysterious “Black Light Blue”, a folky digression with “When Johnny Met June”, and a cock-rocking climax on the Lynyrd Skynyrd–worthy “Jesus on a Greyhound”. There was also a dash of “Iced Tea”, a ’70s funk burner from Tony Joe White, to end the night.

This music might be built on memories and aimed at fans in danger of losing theirs. But Lynne has chosen a timeless route for her music—and it will, apparently, play on your iPod.