Shelby Lynne on Nashville Return, Collabs, and New Album ‘Consequences of the Crown’

Twenty-five years ago, singer-songwriter Shelby Lynne decided to leave Nashville’s Music Row system behind. She had released her debut album, Sunrise, a country project produced by Bob Montgomery and Billy Sherrill, in 1989. Her second album, Tough All Over, yielded top 30 Country Airplay singles with the title track and “I’ll Lie Myself to Sleep.” Lynne started contributing writing on her fourth and fifth albums but sought greater creative freedom.

Then, she made the career-changing move to California and crafted her liberating 2000 project I Am Shelby Lynne, which many consider her true debut. The album marked her transition from country to soul and R&B, with her commanding vocals and writing perspectives shining in every track. I Am led her to win new artist of the year at the 2001 Grammys and was her first project to debut on the Billboard 200.

This year marks the silver anniversary of I Am Shelby Lynne, celebrated through the re-release of the project’s vinyl and digital versions. Just as her move from Nashville to California propelled her breakthrough years ago, Lynne’s return to Music City two years ago has heralded her latest reinvention. She’s also releasing her ninth studio album, Consequences of the Crown, which arrived on Aug. 16 via Monument Records. This album is her first since 2021’s The Servant.

After spending nearly three decades in California, Lynne relocated back to Nashville to live closer to her sister, fellow singer-songwriter Allison Moorer, and her nephew.

“I just wanted to get back to the South after all that time,” Lynne tells Billboard, noting that songwriting — not recording — was her primary goal. “My original plan was to scooch into Nashville real quiet and find me some folks to write some songs.”

But Nashville’s creative community had other plans. Her friend Waylon Payne offered to reintroduce her to Nashville’s writing circles. The first person Payne brought over was Ashley Monroe. “We were instantly drawn to each other and actually wrote a couple of songs on the first day,” Lynne recalls.

Her community of collaborators kept expanding, with Monroe introducing her Pistol Annies cohorts Angaleena Presley and Miranda Lambert. Soon, Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild joined the circle. Fairchild then set Consequences of the Crown into motion, first becoming Lynne’s manager and then encouraging her to record the album, ultimately landing Lynne a deal with Monument Records.

“She’s just an amazing woman,” Lynne shares. “Karen said, ‘Well, we need a new record from you,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, no. I think that part of my career… I think I’m done. I just want to write songs.’ But she made some calls and Katie McCartney at Monument [Records] said, ‘Let’s make a record.’ So here I am.”

Lynne began those writing sessions last Spring, with the deal with Monument happening in August. When it came time to record the album, the all-woman creative collective naturally came together: Lynne, Fairchild, Monroe, and engineer Gena Johnson.

“We found ourselves in there together, and we just decided we’d go four ways on this thing,” Lynne says. “We met when the four of us could meet because we found that we would never work without the four of us together, because it just didn’t feel right. The songs we were writing were good songs. I’d look around my living room and see these amazing, talented people. I felt loved and kind of taken in.”

The album’s pop-fused, yet stripped-back instrumentation features Lynne not only on vocals, but also on bass, acoustic and electric guitar, percussion, and drums. Monroe played a range of instruments including keys, piano, organ, and acoustic guitar, while Fairchild contributed percussion and background vocals, with Johnson handling percussion and programming. Also featured on the project is Eleonore Denig on strings, while Lynne’s sister Moorer provides background vocals.

Monroe is a co-writer on all but one of the songs on the album, with Fairchild contributing to five songs. Other writer credits include Payne (“Keep the Light On”) and Presley (“Keep the Light On,” “Over and Over”), as well as Meg McRee, Carter Faith, and Jedd Hughes.

In the process, Lynne found camaraderie and a safe space for free-flowing collaboration and emotional excavation. Music led the way in the studio, leaving room for unexpected twists, spoken-word moments, vocal howls, and sonic shifts. The new album also nods to her seminal work I Am Shelby Lynne, as “But I Ain’t” interpolates “Dreamsome” — another mark of that impulsive studio vibe.

“When I’m on the mic and I’m hearing the music, letting things happen, it just kind of fell down because it was so real and we had to keep it,” Lynne says.

The album opens with “Truth We Know,” which Lynne describes as “a sketch of words that I had written down right in the middle of my heart breaking.” Songs such as “Shattered,” “Consequences,” and “Over and Over” explore the nuanced process of navigating a breakup and the work of healing and moving on.

“It was a little bit devastating for me, and I was in a sad kind of a way,” Lynne says. “These songs are little chapters of the pain I was going through when I was breaking up with somebody, and I compare it to all of my crappy relationships, but they can fit in through all of the broken hearts that we’ve had.”

The Nashville Lynne has returned to has both changed and stayed the same. The city has grown, but the country music scene remains influenced by the traditional “good old boy” network, though there have been significant shifts. Artists like Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson are making waves, Americana and folk-oriented artists such as Zach Bryan, The Red Clay Strays, Tyler Childers, and Allison Russell are surging, and Shaboozey’s genre-blending anthem “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is dominating.

“Of course, Nashville’s grown into this huge city, so that’s different,” Lynne says of the changes she’s seen in Music City. “But the good old boy network still runs — it’s just another set of boys. So that exists.

However, Lynne, who is gay, acknowledges other critical changes in Nashville: “How can I put it? Queers have come in and we just f—king run everything. And so, Nashville has had to embrace all of the changes — and look at this eclectic group of people we have, like Allison Russell, Fancy Haygood… people that are saying, ‘I’m doing this.’

“I’m proud of musicians just taking over and saying, ‘F—k you. This is who I am. I’m country. Kiss my a–,’” she continues. “I don’t think genre really matters anymore, because everybody’s doing exactly whatever in the hell they want to do, musically. I love the variety, and the mixed bag of what country music truly is — I don’t listen to mainstream music much, but I guess they’re Americana artists.”

Consequences also serves as a potent reminder of Lynne’s trailblazing, genre-blending ways. She melded various styles long before it became trendy. Lynne also admires the fearless spirit in others, like Beyoncé. She praises Beyoncé’s country-influenced project Cowboy Carter, calling it “well done and brilliant. I couldn’t wait until it came out because I love her and I said, ‘This is not just a country album, but it’s an album for the country.’ It’s an uplifting, creative experience.”

Looking ahead, Lynne has select shows, including what is sure to be a homecoming of sorts at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Sept. 26. For now, she’s celebrating the creative community that has formed around her and remains open to exploration on her next ventures.

“I’m still kind of blown away that everything happened the way it did because it’s just proof that you don’t need to plan everything — just get out of the way,” she says.