Texas singer and songwriter Lyle Lovett is hilarious.
Yes, he’s capable of writing songs that will make your blood run cold, but he’s also a master at working humor into his writing. Sometimes, it’s upbeat. Sometimes, it’s pitch black.
Sometimes it’s subtle and sometimes it’s in a hokey one-liner. But boy, the man can make you laugh out loud.
Take “Since The Last Time” from his 1992 album, Joshua Judges Ruth, for example.
“I went to a funeral,” Lovett sings in his sly wink of a voice, “Oh, and it made me happy/Seeing all those people that I ain’t seen/Since the last time somebody died.”
Or if you’re looking for surreal, head to “Here I Am,” a brassy tune from 1989.
“Hello,” Lovett says in a monologue that opens the song, “I’m the guy who sits next to you and reads the newspaper over your shoulder. Wait. Don’t turn the page. I’m not finished. Life is so uncertain.”
And he’s not just funny in song. It’s in conversation, as well. In a recent interview, we mentioned listening to as much of Lovett’s music as possible before the conversation.
“I’m sorry,” he shot back immediately. Imagine the deadpan look on his face when he said it, a crooked smile just on the other side of the phone line.
In short, whether it’s self-deprecating, hokey or razor-sharp, Lyle Lovett can make you laugh.
“It’s more a reflection of my personality,” Lovett said of his humor. “I just look at something in a humorous way, as opposed to being completely literal or straightforward about it. I think that trying to find humor in every situation is part of my everyday life. I just think it helps your day in general.”
“I don’t sit down and think, ‘I have to write something funny here,’ ” he added. “I was brought up with that sense of humor. In Texas, you look at things in a more lighthearted way and make jokes with your friends.”
A Renaissance man comes to town
The long tall Texan is coming to the Charleston Gaillard Center on Sept. 24, and it is, to put it mildly, one hell of an opportunity.
It’s an opportunity to see one of the greatest songwriters around, a four-time Grammy-award winning legend who’s spent 35 years writing classics that are dark (“L.A. County”), funny (“Don’t Touch My Hat”), dark AND funny, (“She’s No Lady”) and lovably eccentric (the surrealist, half-monologued “Here I Am”).
It’s an opportunity to see him deliver those songs with wry wit and incisive imagery, backed by some of the best musicians in the world. Typically, Lovett tours with an outfit called His Large Band, a 14- to 16-piece behemoth that can handle the jazz, pop, country, Americana and gospel tunes Lovett throws around in every show.
But this time out, you will have the opportunity to see Lovett with a smaller ensemble called His Acoustic Group featuring longtime collaborators Leland Sklar (bass), Jim Cox (keyboards) and Russ Kunkel (drums).
“Every show is a privilege, really,” Lovett told the Charleston City Paper. “To get to stand onstage with Russ and Lee (Sklar) and Jim is something I consider an honor. They’re a delight for me to listen to. The way they improvise every night, I can listen to them think, and it’s fun.”
On this tour, Lovett and His Acoustic Group (slightly misnamed, since there is one electric guitar), have been taking a long stroll through his catalog. Favorites like “She’s Already Made Up Her Mind” and “If I Had A Boat” pop up frequently, as do lesser known gems like the gospel-fueled “Church.”
The set is a tribute to one of the most stylistically diverse writers ever to be mislabeled as “country.” Lovett can slip easily from honky tonk weepers to alluring experiments like the comic soft samba “Her First Mistake” from the 1996 album The Road to Ensenada.
Lovett’s genre-hopping isn’t especially unusual these days, but back in the day when he was getting started, he was marketed as straight ahead country, which he never really was. In fact, he was never supposed to be a “country singer” at all.
“I went to Nashville because I had a pile of songs,” he said. “Not necessarily country songs, but I went to Nashville because in 1984 it was, and still is, a place that was really interested in songs. I went with the idea of getting recording artists interested in my songs. Then a year later, I ended up getting a record deal.”
A huge talent
The world was introduced to his singular songwriting talent (and skyscraping hairdo) on Lovett’s self-titled 1986 album. It didn’t take long for fans and other songwriters to take notice.
In addition to the four Grammy awards and six gold albums, Lovett has been praised by Robert Earl Keen, John Hiatt, Guy Clark, and Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith and more.
Despite that tidal wave of praise from other songwriters, critics and fans, Lovett sounded more thankful for one accomplishment than any other.
“You’re talking about awards and all that, but this past summer in Austin, a restaurant named a sandwich after me,” he said. “So if you’re ever at the Swedish Hill Bakery in Austin, ask for ‘Lyle’s Italian.’ Everything really came together on that one.”
See? Funny.
And he’s having a lot more funny moments in his life. The 67-year-old Lovett and his wife are raising 8-year-old twins, one a boy and another a girl. He says fatherhood has changed his perspective on writing considerably, adding that the kids have been listening to a lot of K-pop and Bangles tunes lately.
“Fatherhood has given me songs,” he said. “It’s inspired me in ways that I could never imagine. My children are a constant inspiration to me, all the time. We’re even doing a song in the show that I made up with them. We go around and each contribute a line to whatever we’re making up, and we sing it all the way through with each new line.”
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