07/26/12

Story by Diane Carroll

Lyle Lovett

Lyle Lovett to show off diverse styles in show at Yardley Hall 

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Lyle Lovett, a singer and songwriter who fuses country with folk, rock, swing and pop, will perform with his Large Band at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 28, in the Carlsen Center's Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College.

Tickets, which are $150, $65 and $55, are available through the college box office at 913-469-4445 or on line at jccc.edu/TheSeries.

Lovett's latest album, Release Me, mixes cover and original songs that demonstrate the diversity of his influences. For more than three decades, he has created his own style of Americana, defying convention and breaking down barriers along the way.

Lovett, 54, was born in Klein, Texas. He began his music career while attending Texas A&M University in the late 1970s, where he graduated with bachelor’s degrees in journalism and German.

Each of his 14 albums, from his self-titled debut in 1986 through 2009’s Natural Forces and this year's Release Me, are reminders that he possesses one of the most distinctive voices in music. His sell-out concerts, whether with his versatile Large Band or in an intimate acoustic setting, serve as showcases for Lovett’s unique gift for storytelling and the tradition of timeless music Lovett continues to create.

Lovett has won four Grammy awards: Best Country Album in 1996 for The Road to Ensenada, Best Country Duo/Group with Vocal in 1994 for Blues for Dixie with the Texas swing group Asleep at the Wheel; Best Pop Vocal Collaboration in 1994 for Funny How Time Slips Away with Al Green; and Best Country Male Vocal in 1989 for Lyle Lovett and His Large Band.

In addition to his music, Lovett has appeared in a dozen feature films, including several directed by Robert Altman.

Release Me, which came out in February, features a photo of Lovett dressed in a suit, tied up in rope, standing on a country road. He told TIME magazine in March that he was trying to point out that Release Me was his last album with Curb/Universal Music Group, the record label that first signed him in 1985.

"I'm proud of it and grateful they kept me around all these years," he told TIME. "It's kind of a rare thing…But I am very much looking forward to what's next. The music business has changed a lot since 1985. There's just a greater ability than ever to reach your audience yourself."

Lovett and Nathaniel Kunkel produced Release Me and Lovett's Christmas EP, Songs for the Season, released last year. Both include Frank Loesser's timeless Baby, It's Cold Outside, which features Austin, Texas-based singer Kat Edmonson on vocals, and Lovett's own The Girl with the Holiday Smile.

Lovett told Billboard that Release Me includes some songs that have been important to him over the years that he had just never recorded. Besides the one by Loesser, the album features works by Jesse Winchester, Townes Van Zandt, Michael Franks and Chuck Berry. Lovett said he wanted Release Me to be a "punctuation mark for this whole part of my career."

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