The AllMusic review of Lyle Lovett’s third album, Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, describes the record as a spectacular way to burn bridges to the traditional country and western establishment.
Indeed, if his previous effort, Pontiac, hadn’t made it clear that Lovett was as interested in gospel and jazz as country, this record surely drove that point home.
Lyle Lovett’s sixth album, The Road to Ensenada, was the logical culmination of everything he’d done before. It struck a balance between his country and jazz sides, leaning a bit toward the former, but it didn’t have the schizophrenic feel of And His large Band… or Pontiac.
On those records, Lovett basically dedicated a side apiece to his country work and another side to his big band and gospel sound. On Joshua Judges Ruth he scaled the country back and sometimes strayed too far into sleepy ballad territory.
So we have reached the final installment in my 20-day series on great albums. Singing us out is Lyle Lovett and his 1996 album The Road to Ensenada.
Lovett’s albums tend to suffer from multiple personality disorder. His influences are so broad and his style so far-reaching that his records often end up as a hodgepodge of great ideas. He dabbles in country, jazz, blues, rock and gospel, making for wonderful songs but schizophrenic albums.
The Road to Ensenada avoids that confusion. It’s a straightforward collection of traditional country and honky-tonk and, though it is less expansive than his earlier work, it remains the best thing he has ever done.
Last September, during a Lyle Lovett theme week, I singled out one song from his album The Road the Ensenada and promised to highlight two other songs — the album’s best — on future dates. I fulfilled half of the promise in November, when I featured ‘Her First Mistake‘ as a Song of the Day. Today I complete the mission.
For my money, the title track of The Road the Ensenada is possibly the finest song Lovett has ever written, and among the finest I’ve ever heard. That’s high praise for a relatively simple song but Lovett is no stranger to high praise, at least from this corner.
When I wrapped up my recent Lyle Lovett theme weeks, I held out hope that he would break out of the slump he’d been in for the past dozen years or so. His last album, It’s Not Big It’s Large, was a step in the right direction — a bit slight, but featuring stronger material than he’d released in years. I figured his next turn at bat would be major.
I was wrong.
Natural Forces is another stop-gap Lyle Lovett album, enjoyable enough for what it is but a shadow of the man’s best work. It contains only four original songs and most of those aren’t even as good as the covers that make up the rest of the album. It’s a pleasure, as always, to hear Lovett and his peerless band perform but it’s a fleeting pleasure when what you really want is the next Road to Ensenada or Joshua Judges Ruth.
Meet Me In Montauk 