SUNDAY, MAY 15 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE E5
Musicknew I wanted to record again,” h e
says. But he was more than happy
to bide his time, s tockpiling songs
and waiting for the right deal to
come along, which it finally did in
the shape of an offer from Verve
Records. “It was n ice. I f somebody
called up and asked for me to sing
a harmony with them on a record,
I didn’t have to ask anybody’s per-
mission,” he says of the interven-
ing years.
Much of “ 12 th of June” was
recorded in Nashville in the fall of
20 19, but t he p andemic delayed its
release — and for the first time in
over 35 years, took h im away f rom
regular touring with the Large
Band, his aptly named 15-piece
band. That meant getting nearly
two years of uninterrupted time
with his children, taking on
p arenting duties with April with
virtually no outside help, as they
kept a careful distance even from
his 92 -year-old mother, who lives
next door on the family property.
“I’ve written these songs, but I’m
not sitting around reflecting on
what it’s like being a dad,” Lovett
says. “ I’m being a d ad.”
The influence of fatherhood on
the album can perhaps be most
clearly seen i n the comedic turn o f
a song like “Pants is Overrated,”
inspired by Lovett’s children and
written with a playful, adolescent
sensibility. “ That’s just something
I started singing to them as I was
trying to convince them to wear
pants,” he says. Similarly, “Pig
Meat Man” came from his son’s
love for eating bacon. The singer
takes clear enjoyment in learning
to see the world through his kids’
eyes. “These are the two most
interesting people I’ve ever met,”
he says proudly.
Russ Kunkel, the Large Band’s
drummer for more than 30 years,
says that his boss seems “ fulfilled”
in a whole new way since becom-
ing a father. “I f eel that he’s a lways
wanted to have a f amily and for h is
family to grow and to go on, for
there to be a lineage there,” Kunkel
says. That lineage is strong, too:
Klein, the unincorporated town
where Lovett grew up and has
lived most of his life, was named
for his great-great-grandfather,
Adam Klein. As an only child, he
says his cousins are like brothers
and s isters to him.
The title track of “12th of June,”
in particular, explores notions of
fatherhood and tradition with
scenes pulled straight from the
family reunions that have taken
place for generations in East Tex-
as. T he Saturday before this inter-
view, i n fact, he and 60 or so of his
kin c ongregated a t the u sual g ath-
ering spot — the family cemetery
in San Jacinto County, north of
Houston, near a creek they’ve
dubbed “the Branch,” which gets
name-checked in the song. “It’s
LOVETT FROM E1
Seizing
upon the
sounds
of family
producers, Ian Biederman, at-
tended that same Greek Theatre
show as Altman. “Every time I do
it, I e njoy it,” he says. “It’s a fun w ay
to be creative in somebody else’s
environment.”
Now, with “12th of June” avail-
able, Lovett can look forward to
getting back to his element: on the
road with the Large Band. If life,
and the outside world, have
slowed him down in recent years,
he’s nowhere near stopping. “Not
many p eople in their lives get to do
something their whole life that
they love to do,” he says. “A nd I’m
grateful for that.”years. “I didn’t have any ambition
to act,” he admits, referring to his
career as “accidental.” Altman
reached out to the singer after
catching one of his shows at the
Greek Theatre in Los Angeles in
199 0. “I said, ‘Do I need to take
some acting l essons?’ And h e said,
‘Heavens no, they’ll just mess you
up,’ ” Lovett recalls with a laugh.
He went on to appear in three
more of A ltman’s f ilms.
Most recently, he’s made cam-
eos in two episodes of the CBS
police drama “Blue Bloods,” in-
cluding one that aired in January.
Coincidentally, one of the show’scent outlaw country movement.
“There was something exciting to
me that it wasn’t mainstream mu-
sic, but i t was r eally good,” he says.
“It was, like, our o wn secret music
in Texas. And it was immensely
popular [ there].”
Throughout his career, Lovett
has assumed a number of differ-
ent roles — literally, in some cases.
Thirty years ago he made his first
serious attempt at acting in Rob-
ert Altman’s “The Player,” which
kicked off an unlikely stint as a
Hollywood star and introduced
him to his first wife, Julia Roberts,
to whom he was married for twoter a f our-night r un a t City Winery
in New York City next week.
As he gets older, Lovett has
dealt not only with the loss of
players but of friends. Just last
year, he lost fellow singer Nanci
Griffith, 6 8, a close companion
and mentor who played a crucial
role in his early career. The two
first met when he was a reporter
for h is college p aper at Texas A&M
University in College Station,
about an hour up the road from
Klein. She invited him to perform
at Anderson Fair, a popular song-
writers’ haunt in Houston, where
he fell in with the likes of Eric
Taylor and Lucinda Williams.
“That was a consistent quality
about Nanci. Nanci was quick to
encourage younger performers.
She extended herself,” L ovett s ays.
Griffith later invited him to
Nashville to sing on her 1984 al-
bum “Once in a Very Blue Moon.”
While there, he did the rounds
with publishing houses and rec-
ord l abels, and ultimately d ecided
to reconnect with the players who
made up the original Large Band
lineup. Though Lovett was em-
braced by the country music
world, he never fit neatly into any
one box. If he were coming up
today, he’d likely be considered
Americana — a genre that he and
Griffith played a n indelible part in
carving a n iche for.
“There’s only one Lyle Lovett,”
says Kunkel — a fact, he figures,
that can go both ways. “I think he
probably has suffered every once
in a while by people not knowing
what category to put him into,” he
adds.
Lovett, reared by an era where
singer-songwriters like Joni
Mitchell, James Taylor and John
Denver ruled the airwaves, was
attracted to a certain musical s pir-
it more than anything. “I was
drawn to people who could per-
form a song in a complete w ay j ust
with their guitar,” he remembers.
There was plenty of that to be
found in his home state, particu-
larly in Austin, where some of his
heroes like Guy Clark and Townes
van Zandt lived. He also eagerly
read and reread Jan Reid’s “The
Improbable Rise of Redneck
Rock,” a 1974 chronicle of the nas-like a picnic. Everybody brings a
covered dish,” says Lovett, adding
a quaint touch to the macabre
setting.
Given the 10 -year gap between
albums, Lovett was that much
more concerned with writing
“from the perspective of a person
my age,” he says. Songs like “Her
Loving Man” and “A re We Danc-
ing” are touching portraits of
lived-in devotion that echo the
bond he shares with April.
(They’ve been together for 25
years, and married for the past
five.) “The Mocking Ones” is a
rumination on friendships and
the ways that people grow apart
over time.
“The clearest thing I can com-
municate is the world around me,
from my point of view. That’s the
way I’ve always approached writ-
ing, really,” Lovett o bserves. “But I
wasn’t trying to make a grand
statement. I was just trying to say
what I can say.”
Elsewhere, Lovett leaves the
statements to others. Shining a
spotlight on the members of his
Large Band is standard fare for
Lovett, according to Kunkel. “He
surrounds himself with really tal-
ented people. Some artists would
be hesitant to do that, because
maybe their egos are too fragile,”
Kunkel says. That attitude engen-
ders loyalty among h is p layers. H is
longtime backup singer Francine
Reed, for instance — who’s also
recorded with Willie Nelson and
Delbert McClinton — has been
with him ever since she got called
into a recording session for his
debut album, “Lyle Lovett,” re-
leased in 1986. “ When I first heard
him singing, I said, ‘Oh yeah, he’s
on his way,’ ” she says. “A nd I didn’t
know that I was going to be going
with him.”
Three of the new album’s t racks
are showcases for duets with
Reed, each crackling with an easy,
sure-footed chemistry. Lovett,
sensing that her time on the road
was winding down, wanted to
commemorate some of the pop
and jazz standards they’ve sung
together onstage. “He’s such a gen-
tleman. He still calls me Miss
Reed,” says R eed, 74, who has duly
decided to retire from touring af-MICHAEL WILSON
“12th of June,” which takes its title from his children’s birthday, is Lyle Lovett's first album in about a decade, recorded in Nashville in 2019.D. FAHLESON/HOUSTON CHRONICLE/ASSOCIATED PRESSLyle Lovett performs in 199 8 at the Aerial Theater in Houston. Throughout his career, Lovett has been
embraced by the country music world, but has been attracted more to a musical spirit than a genre.
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