A few years ago, alt-country artist Shelby Lynne received an e-mail from her friend Barry Manilow suggesting that Lynne record a tribute album to one of her musical inspirations, Dusty Springfield.

Lynne thought it was a good idea, but didn’t rush into doing the project. It wasn’t until January 2007 that she stepped into Capitol Records building Studio A with legendary producer Phil Ramone, engineer Al Schmitt and four talented studio musicians — drummer Greg Field, guitarist Dean Parks, keyboardist Rob Mathes and bassist Kevin Axt.

The results of the session are available on Just A Little Lovin’: Inspired by Dusty Springfield, Lynne’s well-crafted tribute to a leading lady of pop music who became famous during the British Invasion.

When it came to selecting songs for Just A Little Lovin’, there was one song that Lynne intentionally left off the list.

“I didn’t include ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ because I felt that it was Dusty’s song, but the songs I did choose are those that I loved the most,” she says.

Lynne also pays homage to Springfield with the photo used for the cover of Just A Little Lovin’.

“It kind of happened that way,” Lynne says. “When the art department started cropping the photo I noticed how much it resembled the Dusty in Memphis cover.”

The one original tune on the album is “Pretend,” a song that Lynne wrote some time ago.

“It reminded me of a song that Dusty would have cut,” she says.