Morgan Creek
1993
Temptation
About This Album
Shelby Lynne is nobody's fool. Since 1990's Tough All Over, this artist has defiantly resisted any attempt to pigeonhole her, and has fought record labels tooth and nail to make the kind of records she wanted to -- even if they weren't commercially viable. Temptation is a case in point. While Tough All Over -- a contemporary country groundbreaker and a classic record in anybody's book -- scored big and Soft Talk netted a couple of mid-level hit singles, nothing could have prepared fans of her first three records for 1993's Temptation. Produced by Brent Maher, whose work with the Judds earned him recognition, the album was Lynne's first for Morgan Creek/Mercury, after leaving Epic a year earlier. What is so utterly startling about the disc is that, while the cover photo features a short-haired, sultry-looking Lynne, who appeared as if straight from a Vogue photo shoot, the music is hardcore jacked-up Western swing and big-band country, featuring a full-on orchestra of the size Bob Wills hired at his zenith -- this one contains an eight-piece horn section, pedal steel, fiddle (of course), guitars galore, bass, and drums. With arrangements by Buddy Skipper, the disc is equally balanced between uptempo finger-popping Western swing and hillbilly boogie and killer jazzed-up country ballads that Patsy Cline would have been hungry to sing in her transition years.
Track List

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.