Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

Long before Chappell Roan earned the moniker "your favorite singer's favorite singer," that's how people thought of Shelby Lynne, the Alabama-born singer-songwriter who long ago set the bar for voices that expressively explore the intersections of country and soul. Her 2000 breakthrough album, I Am Shelby Lynne, helped her win a Grammy for Best New Artist, though in reality she'd had a long career before that, working her way through the Nashville system since she was a teen and remaining active ever since, pursuing an increasingly independent career outside the pop or country mainstream.

Lynne claims to have thought her days as a record maker were more or less over before she found herself in the studio recording her new album, “Consequences of the Crown.” She had moved back to Nashville from California after a quarter-century absence to be with her sister, fellow singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, but also to secure a songwriting contract. It was during a series of writing sessions with Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, recording artist Ashley Monroe and producer-engineer Gena Johnson that she was essentially told she was making a record, whether she wanted or expected it or not. The result is an album that finds Lynne buoyed and empowered by sisterhood, but expresses her own powerful, idiosyncratic vision—one that, like many of her most enduring songs, is rooted in real-time heartbreak.

She also tackled this lost love experience without the help of alcohol, having quit after feeling like her life was on the line. Lynne called up Variety to discuss the new album, which covers everything from the devastation of a failed love affair to her enduring love for her sister and how she got past “falling drunk” as she recalibrated her life.