Shelby Lynne Live at Amoeba

I just want to say that Shelby Lynne is the damned coolest celebrity I've ever met.

The country-rocker was at Amoeba tonight to promote her new album, Suit Yourself, with a live in-store performance. Because Amoeba live shows are free events, most artists will play for only about 25 minutes; Shelby was on stage for well over an hour!

The length wouldn't have mattered if the show wasn't any good. But Shelby's an artist who's completely comfortable on stage, like as though she's just rocking on the front porch with some old friends. She was a smooth operator tonight, moving in and out of songs with impeccable control over her instruments, band, and audience. She didn't play much old material but her new songs are very strong compositions that are even arguably better than the ones on her previous Grammy-winning album, I Am Shelby Lynne.

Shelby's stage presence is simply incredible: She exudes the charisma and confidence of someone who was born to be a star and knows it. But she's no diva, as plainly seen in her repeated playful bantering with members of the audience, including a point late in the set at which she turned to front-row photo-snappers and teased, "Ain't you got enough pictures yet?" She then proceeded to have them hand over their cameras so she could take photographs of them!

To illustrate the point further, at another point, a little girl in the front grew restless and whined to her father about being tired, which Shelby just happened to overhear. She decided right then and there to call timeout on her set so that she could entertain the bored little girl by asking her on stage to sing a song. The little girl chose "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and a smiling, kneeling Shelby played the accompanying chords and sang along with her, ending to thunderous applause.

The show would've been great even if I'd paid for it. But as Shelby so poignantly said, "You know what I love about this show? It's f---in' free! ...I love free s---." Couldn't have said it better myself. I could've said it cleaner, but not better.

Just when I thought the night couldn't get any cooler, Shelby hung around around to sign autographs after the show. Okay, so most artists performing at Amoeba will do that, but only for about half an hour if they're generous, making the autograph line feel like a conveyor belt. Shelby actually stuck around for yet another hour, going way past the usual niceties and actually engaging in real conversations with her fans. She didn't place any restrictions on autographs either; there were none of the typical "one item per person" or "new album only" limits. She really seemed grateful for her fans' adoration, wanting to reach out and touch us so much that she shunned the chair behind the signing table and sat right on top of the table to give us all hugs as we came up. Unbelievable.

I had one weird moment that night: When I approached the signing table, Shelby didn't immediately greet me with her usual "Why, hello there!" in her Southern drawl like the one she had just given Philo before me. Instead, she grew quiet and we sort of just looked into each other's eyes for a moment, almost inquisitively. It was a bit uncomfortable to me simply because it was such a surprise. She was sitting so near that it became a strangely close, intimate gaze... I don't quite know how to describe it but I guess it was like one of those surreal moments when you run across someone you know you've never met but you feel that you have sometime long ago, like there's some deeper connection than you can understand right then. It was obviously a totally unexpected occurrence but it was actually kind of cool to have it happen with Shelby of all people.

Anyway, I got past that and we chatted for a little while as I gushed over her music and she talked about what a blast she was having in Los Angeles. She totally seems like the kind of person who could make friends with anybody in the world. I told her (truthfully) I wouldn't have minded paying $50 for her show that night, and she gave me a sportive aw-shucks jab to the arm as I said goodbye and shook her hand.

I wasn't too sure what to expect from Shelby Lynne as a live performer but I have to admit that I hadn't expected her to be this damn good. I've definitely become a lifelong fan from here on out...