A year after Step Inside This House, Lyle Lovett continued to frustrate fans by releasing a live album. Don’t get me wrong… this is a fine live album. But three years after The Road to Ensenada, I for one was ready for some new Lyle.
While the performances on Live in Texas are not by the actual Large Band, they have the same sound and general makeup — horns, strings, gospel-style backing vocals, and Lovett as the confident ringleader.
I was lucky enough to see him in concert backed by this lineup and Live in Texas is a fair representation of the wonderful concert I saw.
Most of the songs here are faithful recreations of their album counterparts, with one major exception. Lovett turns his first hit, ‘You Can’t Resist It,’ into an avant garde masterpiece. The song is one of his more straight-forward, and among the closest thing to pop he’s written. But here it’s a slow stunner with an extended cello solo (yes, a cello solo) that really brings the house down.
To know better
And she was strong enough
To be true
And she was hard enough
To know whether
He was smart enough
To know what to do
And you can’t resist it
When it happens to you
No you can’t resist it
When it happens to you
And you can tell your story
And you can swear it’s true
But you can save your lying
For some other fool
And you can’t resist it
When it happens to you
No you can’t resist it
When it happens to you
She was old enough
To know better
And she was strong enough
To be true
And she was hard enough
To know whether
He was smart enough
To know what to do
And you can’t resist it
When it happens to you
No you can’t resist it
When it happens to you
And you can’t resist it
When it happens to you
No you can’t resist it
When it happens to you
Meet Me In Montauk 
What makes something avant garde? Just curious 🙂 Not the first word that would have come to my mind, but perhaps I’ve not been embracing it fully for all these years. From now on, whenever I hear anything that remotely reminds me of Lyle Lovett, I shall proclaim it avant garde 😉
I like the original version of this song better, but I do enjoy hearing his live take on it. What I most fondly recall from seeing him live was the way he teased out the humor and expectation of each new line. His rendition of “Here I Am” in the first Lyle concert I attended converted me to Lovettism right on the spot. The second time I saw him, it was his performance of “Her First Mistake” that guaranteed I would be a lifelong member of his church. Can’t wait to see what live treats he has up his sleeve the next time (when?!!) I get to see him.
I think an extended cello solo in the middle of a country pop song can be reasonably described as avant garde! 🙂
I have to side with Clay here–a cello solo in the middle of a pop song can be fairly described as avant garde.
I far prefer this version of the song to the original, if only because it strips away the pop package and allows you to enjoy Lyle’s phrasing of the lyrics.
I’m sure if Lyle had written more songs like this one, he might have been a bigger star, but not a better one.
Since I am at school, where accessing YouTube is strictly forbidden, I am unable to defend Lyle’s original song by providing a link to it – or, better yet, embedding it, here. So… Dana I’d request that you do so, in order to let Clay’s other listeners determine whether “the pop package” so detracts from all of Lyle’s other gifts.
As Clay said at the start of this feature, it’s the fact that Lovett can do each of these things so well that makes him such a special artist.
Okay, apparently only avant-garde live versions of this song are easily available online. Trust me – the pop version is fabulous.