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"Live in Texas," Lovett's first album in a decade with what he calls his Large Band, is a wonderfully satisfying jazz-pop-country amalgam. Lovett's songs can more or less be divided into two categories -- tongue-in-cheek romps and plaintive ballads -- and both types get ample workouts here, showcasing his band's enviable ability to inhabit songs without overpowering them.

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band "Live in Texas" MCA/Curb

A pair of gospel-tinged numbers from "Joshua Judges Ruth" (1992) set the musical and whimsical tone. "I've Been to Memphis" has an easy funk and great honky-tonk piano breaks, while "Church," with Lovett's deadpan theological introspection, describes a congregation stuck in a sweltering hot chapel listening to a windbag preacher. The boisterous, horn-led band and the appreciative San Antonio audience invigorate both songs with a simmering energy. Other upbeat cuts like "Penguins," from "I Love Everybody" (1994), and the stop-start "Here I Am," where a freakishly erudite Lovett tries to pick up a stranger in a diner, round out the more boisterous songs on this 14-track set.

As always, Lovett is equally adept at spotlighting his more introspective, emotionally cutting side. "Nobody Knows Me," a gut-wrenching tale of love lost to infidelity, is as touching as "Penguins" is invigorating. The yearning "If I Had a Boat" is surprisingly intimate, and Rickie Lee Jones helps make "North Dakota" both touching and gorgeous.

Lovett is an all-too-rare commodity: a country star with crossover appeal who doesn't dilute either his roots or his vision. While "Live in Texas" is more of a jazz-pop revue than a yee-haw banjo and mandolin effort, Lovett does not pander. Instead, he shapes his disparate influences and molds them around his silky voice and singular vision. And that vision is a delight.
salon.com | June 24, 1999

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