Up next in my personal musical genome project is Mr. Lyle Lovett, in honor of my sister, whose birthday is today. (Happy Birthday, Amy!)
Lovett falls into the ‘COUNTRY PLUS’ category. The “plus” is a designation my nerdy family has used for years to differentiate special movies and songs within certain genres from more generic examples. So Woody Allen’s movies, say, are “comedy plus” while your basic Adam Sandler vehicle is a plain old comedy.
I’m more than a little fed up with Lyle Lovett.
Since his 1996 masterpiece, The Road to Ensenada, he has released seven albums, and he doesn’t appear to be trying on any of them. That group includes a soundtrack, a live album and three records dedicated almost exclusively to covers.
The other two albums — My Baby Don’t Tolerate and It’s Not Big It’s Large — have their moments but mostly sound like Lovett is going through the motions, coasting on the reputation he established over his amazing first six records.
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.
