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WEDNESDAY

I Am Shelby Lynne is something of a coming-out party for the 31-year-old Alabama native. Five country albums constructed in and by the Nashville music machine left Shelby Lynne eager to break away and forge her own sound, but her highly praised new album doesn’t quite get past superior-sounding pastiche, featuring elements of Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Phil Spector, and Sheryl Crow (the last probably due to the presence of Tuesday Night Music Club producer Bill Bottrell). Still, I Am is a promising effort, and Lynne has the depressing personal history (she has been arrested twice; her dad killed her mom, then himself; and, as she told Rolling Stone, she “got married in a fever and got divorced in a fever, too”), good looks, and tough-girl attitude necessary to be a country superstar. She performs at 7:30 p.m. at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $15. (202) 393-0930. (Christopher Porter)