Tag: Lyle Lovett

Random Shuffle (11/27/06) – Motley Crue, The Mamas and the Papas, Lyle Lovett, The Clash & Natalie Merchant

Originally written on November 28, 2006.

“Girls, Girls, Girls” – Mötley Crüe
From Girls, Girls, Girls

I have previously mentioned my undying love for all things hair metal, and Mötley Crüe were the unquestioned kings of the hair. They rocked, they rolled, they barely survived their own hedonism. Even their power ballads are pretty good. Who doesn’t get all teary-eyed when “Home Sweet Home” plays over the loudspeakers?

I am particularly fond of this song, or rather its accompanying video. As the title implies, it was all about the ladies, and more specifically the scantily clad ladies. For a young teenage boy, there isn’t anything better than scantily clad ladies.

I can remember sitting with my cousin at my grandma’s house watching MTV in the back bedroom. “Girls, Girls Girls” was in heavy rotation. Every time the video would come on, my cousin would turn the volume way down – I guess because he was afraid someone would hear and chastise our viewing tastes – and we would sit watching the gyrations in silence.

It was a good time.

This gives me an odd remembrance of the song, though. I remember the girls, but it is one of the few Crüe hits where I don’t really know the music all that well. Too much mute I guess.

“Dream a Little Dream of Me” – The Mamas and the Papas
From the Papas and the Mamas

This song will forever remind me of the film that bears its name. An odd, dreamy movie starring the Coreys. It was probably the first non-mainstream, weird, art film I had ever seen. It showed me how the film could be different and interesting and not follow the same standard plot lines. I’ve been a fan of weird films ever since.

The song is nothing but loveliness. Mama Cass’ big beautiful voice singing nothing but beauty. It is a song I used to listen to and dream little dreams of my own. It’s the sort of song I used to play and wonder when someone would dream of me. It’s a song I played at my wedding reception. A song I now enjoy with my wife.

Fat Babies” – Lyle Lovett
From I Love Everybody

Lyle Lovett is the sort of artist who can write nonsense, humor, and poetry. Sometimes all within the same song. Though I Love Everybody is far from his best album (The Road To Ensenada gets that award) it is the first album of his I ever heard.

In college a good friend of mine had this giant tape collection filled with all sorts of artists I had never heard of. I’d often sit in his dorm room and pick out tapes at random just to find something interesting. I heard my first Grateful Dead bootlegs in that room as well as John Prine, John Mccutcheon, and Willie Nelson. Well, ok I had heard Willie before, but it was in that room that we began our love affair.

Lyle was first heard by my ears between those walls as well, and it was this album that made me a fan. It’s not exactly country as it is filled with big jazzy horns and a few blues riffs. But it’s not jazz or blues or rock and roll either. These days you’d probably call it Americana, but I didn’t know what the crap that was back then. What I did know was that it was different, and exactly the kind of acoustic sound I had been looking for.

“Fat Babies” is a silly little nonsensical song on an album full of them. Lyles singing about things he hates which include hippies, cornbread, and fat babies. But then he turns around and likes a girl simply because she likes him and she don’t like much. None of it makes much sense, but it doesn’t have to. It’s just fun and silly and a nice piece of music. Sometimes that’s all a song needs to be.

“Train in Vain” – The Clash
From London Calling

I spent a long time declaring I didn’t like the Clash even though I’d never really heard many of their songs. I knew “Rock the Casbah” of course and liked it too. But the few other songs I had heard all had this annoying reggae jive going for it and did nothing to make me want more. A local radio guy is a big fan and periodically plays Joe Strummer solo stuff, but it too seemed to have this faux reggae feel and I just don’t like faux reggae.

I kept hearing how great London Calling was and eventually decided to have myself a listen. I got the disk and expected to hate it and was already writing a scathing review in my head. It never got out of my head because, as it turned out, I loved the disk. There’s a few reggae beats in there, but it really encompasses so many genres that I hardly noticed.

Turns out there were also a few songs I already knew and enjoyed but didn’t know it was by the Clash. “Trains in Vain” is one of those songs, and it s a good one.

“San Andreas Fault” – Natalie Merchant
From Tigerlily

I’ve always been a very casual 10,000 Maniacs fan. I have a few of their albums, and whenever I play them, I enjoy them. But they never made what I’d call a stand-out album and for the most part, their music sits in the back of my collection, only surfacing periodically.

However, Natalie Merchant’s first solo album, Tigerlily, has always been one of my favorites. I can’t really pinpoint exactly why I like it so much. There are only a couple of songs that I know well or would say are great songs. The rest of them kind of blend together and I couldn’t tell you their names even though I’ve listened to the disk numerous times.

It’s all very low-key, and you wouldn’t be too far off to say it’s mostly kind of dull. Natalie has this exotic, lulling voice that washes over me and sends me to a nice kind of place. It’s really nice background music – the kind of thing to play while reading a book or relaxing with some hot chocolate and a warm fire.

This is my favorite song on the album and it starts off with this marvelous, cooing “ooohs” from Natalie that lay me down and fluff my pillow. It sets a perfect mood for a relaxing evening, morning, or anytime in between.

Bootleg Country: Lyle Lovett – Minneapolis, MN (01/27/92)

I really had planned on a Lyle Lovett Bootleg Review before I knew that I’d be seeing and reviewing him for an actually attended live concert.

Lyle Lovett is, perhaps, best known for his short-lived marriage to superstar Julia Roberts. When they wed many folks were asking, “How could she marry him?” but to partially quote marketing material from Say Anything, to know Lyle Lovett is to love him.

Recently while trying to compose a list of my all-time favorite bands, I kept coming back to Lyle. He isn’t a poet like Dylan or a pop craftsman like Lennon/McCartney but he definitely has something that elevates him above just about everyone else. To me anyway.

His lyrics have a way of being both hilarious and poignant at the same time. In-person, he has a dry, rye delivery that makes even the most mundane of stories beautifully humorous.

His style has changed a lot over the years from straight-ahead Nashville country to Texas swing to the more folkie-alt.country stylings of today. He’s a bit like Willie Nelson in his ability to write songs that hold true to whoever is singing them.

01/27/92
Guthrie Theater
Minneapolis, MN

This is one of my favorite all-time bootlegs. The sound is absolutely perfect. It makes me feel like Lyle is in my living room, playing for my friends. The music is lovely, and Lyle chats it up as if he is at a family reunion instead of in front of a paying audience.

He is playing with a scaled-down version of his Large Band. The horns have been nixed, the backup singers are gone, and all that’s left is Lyle on acoustic guitar, then we have drums, acoustic bass, and cello. Similar to Nirvana on Unplugged, this spare style highlights Lyle’s beautiful songwriting ability.

It was recorded a few months before the release of Joshua, Judges, Ruth so all the material here is more than a decade old. Yet it still sounds vital and refreshing. It helps that much of what is played is new material, so classic songs like “Church” and “The Last Time” are revitalized with an audience laughing for the first time at the jokes.

In fact, “The Last Time” is a great example of lyrics that provoke both a sense of humor and depth. It starts out with,

“I went to a funeral
Lord it made me happy
Seeing all those people
I ain’t seen
Since the last time
Somebody died.”

Immediately, there is the ironic humor of being happy going to a funeral and yet the understanding of truth lying behind how we often don’t see those we love unless something serious happens.

If I have a complaint on this disk at all, it is that during “You Can’t Resist It” he allows his musicians time to solo, spoiling an otherwise wonderful song. I’m all for good soloing, but there is only so much cello-bongo soloing I can take. But this is but a few minutes of two disks full of nearly perfect music.

The sound here is pristine. I don’t have any conclusive source material, but it’s as close to sitting on stage as you’re going to get with a bootleg.

You can download the show here.

Concert Review – Lyle Lovett: St. Louis, MO (07/28/06)

For many a month, my father and I were planning a vacation to the Glacier National Park in Montana and parts of Canada. Being the generous, family-loving man that he is, my father invited my two siblings. As with all plans that involve numerous people, hammering out the details proved quite difficult.

Timing was the hitch. The sister and her husband reside most of the year in Shanghai, China, visiting the States for a few weeks out of the year. This summer they were already planning a multi-state trek to visit friends, and family and tour with Pearl Jam for several weeks. Finding time for me and the Glacier was proving problematic.

In the end, they canceled for fear of total exhaustion. The father figure then canceled because he chose not to miss seeing his daughter for the tall trees and the bald eagles. I canceled because father had planned to pay.

My anniversary plans were ruined because I had planned on using the Glacier trip as the anniversary present. For what wife wouldn’t love to celebrate four years of marriage with a 7-day 2,000-mile road trip with her in-laws? With the trip canceled, I had to actually come up with a real plan.

A little research found that Lyle Lovett would be doing a free concert in St. Louis. Praising myself for finding something quickly that would be on the way to my folks in Oklahoma, thrill the wife, and be cheap, I quickly booked a hotel room and let the wife in on my beautiful plans.

The concert was right on the river underneath the St. Louis Arch. A beautiful setting if there ever was one. After walking around downtown we debated on whether to branch out and see some of the gardens on the other side of the city, or stay close so that we might get a good seat. Knowing it was a free concert we expected the area to be pretty much packed.

Deciding to stay close we crept back to the motel for a nap. Afterward with nothing else to do we headed in the direction of the Arch. They had begun to set up a perimeter around the stage area so we ducked in quickly to not have our bags dug through and our camera discovered.

It was still a good three hours until Lyle was scheduled to perform. We found some shade (which lowered the temperature to a moderate 95 degrees) and tried to enjoy ourselves.

We sped up time by ordering too-expensive and too-hot pizza, hastily made lemonade with the sugar still undissolved at the bottom, and making laps past the merchandise booths and kiddie playground. Finally, we buckled down and found a seat on the arch steps. The heat was excruciating. The wait was intolerable.

After two hours the time neared. The Large Band minus Lyle performed a rousing version of “She Makes Me Feel Good.” Without Lyle’s lead, but with the backup singers’ punctuations, the song took on a jazzy, New Orleans-style improv.

Too quickly the performers left and the sound check was over. Then the rains came.

Two hours standing in the freaking heat and we’re going to get rained out. Many ran for cover, but I refused. No way was I going to lose my seat after getting fried like a worm on Sunday.

The rains let up and soon enough Lyle came out to play.

The show started softly with just Lyle with an acoustic guitar and a John Hagen on cello playing the tender ballad “Don’t Cry a Tear,” and then a cowboy song that I’d never heard before.

Slowly the rest of the band came out, adding new members after each song. The effect was quite dramatic as the number of performers increased and the music took on an increasingly bigger sound and feel.

The performers truly showcased Lyle’s different styles as a songwriter. The backup singers added a gospel feel, the horns brought in jazz and swing, and the mandolin player from the Chieftains brought old-style bluegrass along. Lyle was at home in all of these settings.

The between-song banter was priceless. As with many of his songs, Lyle has a dry, wry delivery that elevates everything that comes out of his mouth. At one point he decided, for whatever reason, that a portion of his audience was of the Lutheran faith. After discussing this idea for a bit he threw out this little nugget:

“Do you know why Lutherans are against pre-marital sex?
They think it will lead to dancing.”

Late in the set he introduced the entire band, then for his own introduction spoke, “I’m the guy who sits next to you,” which is the first line of the song “Here I Am” to which the band promptly joined in for a marvelous, souped-up rendition.

As is the way things go for my concert attending, the audience wasn’t always into what was happening onstage. There was quite of bit of rambling chit-chat going on when a middle-aged lady walking past noticed what must have been a long-lost friend. With a squeal usually reserved for pigs at a trough, she ran up the steps and hugged said friend and they both began to reminisce with great volume.

There was no attempt at moving someplace where their chatter might not annoy. In fact, the first lady kind of pushed the innocent fellow sitting nearby out of her way. The squealing and the loudness continued for two songs when Lady # 1 finally left.
Not but minutes later the young man sitting next to me received a phone call on his cellular and chatted through yet another song. Having seen that he can get away with loudness he began discussing the concert in progress with the lady next to him.

“That sounds like Scott Joplin on the piano.”

I know it is a free concert and all, but if you want to hang out and talk, go the freak somewhere else!

Moving closer to the front to get away from the chatter we found ourselves amongst more chatter, but at least the volume was loud enough to drown it out.

The Large Band cooked something hot that night. The backup singers, especially Francine Reed, have toured with Lyle for years and are well greased in his teenage. On songs like “(That’s Right) You’re Not From Texas” and “Church,” they swing and fly like a well-oiled locomotive.

As I complain about the audience I must also say many were quite enthusiastic as well. There was much white-boy country boogying going on and we all enjoyed Lyle allowing the audience to finish “Here I Am” by shouting “Make it a cheeseburger.”

The concert employed two people to sign for the hearing impaired. It was beautiful watching a kind-looking young lady perform what may have been the world’s greatest air cello performance during John Hagen’s extended solo.

The show ended without an encore and an apology from Lyle for not being able to play longer due to a city ordinance. The band left the stage to a beautiful, if short, fireworks display over the river.

Cost of a free concert:
$120 per night hotel
$3.00 per gallon of gasoline
$15 average cost of five meals dined out
$8.00 seat cushion to fend off wife’s fanny from hard Arch steps
$4.00 drinks at the concert
$300 in total.

It was worth every penny.

Set list:
Don’t Cry a Tear
Old Cowboys Sang??
This Traveling Around
Instrumental
I Will Rise Up
It Could Be All Downhill From Here
(That’s Right) You’re Not From Texas
I’ve Been to Memphis
The Last Time
Cute as a Bug
My Baby Don’t Tolerate
San Antonio Girl
That Old Train??
I Live in My Own Mind
Bottomland
Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down
Down the Old Plank Road
More Pretty Girls
If I Had a Boat
Give Back My Heart
Here I Am
What Do You Do
Sugar in My Bowl
Church
Cello Solo
I’m Going to Wait
Here I Am (Instrumental)

Random Shuffle (06/27/06) – Elvis Costello, Lyle Lovett, The Rolling Stones, Ben Folds & Bob Dylan

“Allison” – Elvis Costello
From My Aim is True

I’ve never really got Elvis Costello. Most of his songs don’t really translate well into my brain waves. I don’t really have anything against him, I don’t dislike his songs, but I don’t find a whole lot in them to really like either. Which is weird to me, because I rather dig his nerdy schtick and I know folks who totally dig him, and those folks are folks I can generally groove with. I do, however, dig his wife, Diana Krall.

This is one of the few songs I really, truly dig. It’s got that romantic groove going and the close-out line “my aim is true” that cuts deep.

“What’d I Say” – Lyle Lovett
From Smile

Now Lyle Lovett is an artist I can fully and wholly dig. He’s a darn fine musician, a wonderful songwriter, and seemingly an all-around good guy – or at least a wry, funny one.

This is from an album full of songs he has performed for various movies. Lyle is quite a movie man, having performed songs for all kinds of films, and even acted in a number of Robert Altman flicks. None of the songs here are original, it is a bunch of covers, generally really slow covers – which means it’s an album I’m not all that fond of – with a few exceptions, notably this Ray Charles cover.

No doubt this is a great song, and Lyle gives it his best go, but it is a song I’ve long since grown tired of; which is no fault of its own. It’s just one of those songs I’ve heard so many times I can’t listen to it anymore.

The Lyle version is a fine rendition, but nobody beats Ray Charles, especially on the orgasmic moans toward the end. Lyle just can’t get into the sex of it.

“You Got the Silver” – The Rolling Stones
From Let It Bleed

My favorite incarnation of the Stones is the country honk version. I’m an old-school country man anyway, and the way the Stones can cut country music with a raunchy rock n roll edge slays me.

This is a slow-paced, fast song. It’s a simple love song sung plain by Keith Richards. The organ solo in the middle of this two-minute ditty nails everything a good song should. When it’s followed up by a jaunty, rollickin’ piano-based rave it’s pure joy.

“Brick” – Ben Folds Five
From Whatever and Amen

A song about abortion that never mentions it. It weighs like a ton of blocks named in the title. If you let it, it will make you see the misery and loneliness of life.

In but a few verses Ben Folds tells a story so completely, and with such heartbreak it’s hard to believe it is just a pop song. It is a song I both love and hate. I love it for its perfectness, for its ability to transcend pop and convey real, raw emotions. I hate it for the same reasons, it’s just not something easily listened to, for it is too real. How this became something of a hit is beyond me.

“I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” – Bob Dylan
From Biograph

It’s hard to choose a favorite Dylan. There is the political spokesman, the prophet and preacher, there is the storyteller and poet, and then there is the lover, whose words penetrate the heart and soul – ok, yeah, I gotta go for the lover. His words are so heart-achingly beautiful, that it’s hard not to fall in love all over again.

This is a perfect love song. The melody is simple and sweet the lyrics are the whisper of a lover who promises nothing more than a wonderful tonight, but he doesn’t have to promise more. Tonight’s enough.