The CultureMap Interview
Lyle Lovett reflects on Texas tours, parenthood, and 50 years of ACL
Lyle Lovett, an Austin City Limits regular, is playing two back-to-back shows at the Moody Theater in October.
Legendary Texas songwriter Lyle Lovett is just out here for fun — as always — and it looks like he's going to get it during a string of home-state shows with his Large Band from October 15-22. On Friday, October 18, he'll be appearing for free at The Woodlands 50th Anniversary Concert with Hayes Carll and Jack Ingram
"Each of those [Texas] shows feel like hometown shows in a way," says Lovett, who lives in the Houston-area suburb of Klein. "To be able to to cap off a year's worth of work out on the road, to be able to do that at home ... and to have friends and family come to the shows — to have the audience in large part be full of people you know — that's just a great feeling."
Folks all over Texas would surely love to claim Lovett as their own neighbor, despite the uptight limitations of geography. His story is as local Texas as they come; he started playing shows at 18, while home from college, ending up with a sort of two-year residency at the Texas pizza chain Mr. Gatti's.
The restaurant happened to have a rotating music program at its College Station location near the Texas A&M campus, where he was earning degrees in language and journalism. Lovett wasn't exactly intending to make a profession of music, but he certainly wasn't rushing into any other work, either. In other words: having fun.
"I just enjoy the things I get to do. Playing music for a living is such a privilege," says Lovett. "Being able to work towards something you want to do, that you just are naturally drawn to want to do, is such a blessing. So many folks work at jobs where they look forward to the weekend, and I've always felt very fortunate that the public allows me to do something that I love to do every day of the week."
A new era
Still, he's been enjoying something else for the past seven years, now spending more time at home than anywhere else: being a parent. Rather than popping in for some quality time as some touring artists are forced to do, Lovett is getting to experience the daily rhythms of family life, from bringing the kids back and forth from school to learning about their favorite music.
Instead of propping up musicians he'd like to see them listen to, he's tried their suggestions and discovered some new musical realms. The 66-year-old country artist is now, for example, getting familiar with K-pop.
"There hasn't been a stage of their development that I haven't enjoyed," says Lovett. "Who they are doesn't seem to change, but how they learn, and what they learn, and what their interests are, change regularly. And it's just fun trying to keep up with their interests... Their observations become deeper, and deeper, and more and more layered. It's just fascinating to me to watch that develop, watch their minds develop, watch their tastes develop ... and just to watch them grow and learn."
Considering that Lovett is known for his witty lyrics and insights into the truths emanating off the people around him — and considering that these strengths likely came from the same place as his interest in journalism — it shouldn't be surprising that he's enthralled with his kids' development, or that he loves college students.
Lovett said after a residency at the University of North Texas in April of this year that the students made him feel like "the world is a good place." He also has some ongoing connections with his alma mater, specifically at the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts, and there are two college professors in his band: Brad Leali of UNT, and Mace Hibbard of the Georgia Institute of Technology, both notable saxophonists.
He admires the dedication of music students and the clarity of pursuing what they want. But he's not eager to over-intellectualize the effects of art on a person's learning. For Lovett, it's all about the feeling — the emotional expression and the immersion.
50 years of ACL
In fact, the immersive element is one of the reasons he thinks Austin City Limits, the TV show, has reached its 50th anniversary earlier this week on October 17.
A teenaged Lovett was among the Texans at home tuning in for the first broadcast, and since then he's played show tapings many times. In 2019, he became a member of the ACL Hall of Fame, and by 2022 (or perhaps earlier — but who's counting?), he was the second most frequent guest, right behind Texas icon Willie Nelson. Of course, that means he'll be part of the primetime anniversary special taping on November 21. (This is separate from the 50th Birthday Bash on the anniversary itself.)
"Even before I ever played the show, I knew [the producer] Terry Lickona and [the director] Gary Menotti through my friend Wayne Miller," says Lovett. "I used to go to tapings all the time, before I ever was on the show.... I'm not sure that was an advantage in doing the show, but it was fascinating to watch the production. And so, being at Austin City Limits feels like being home to me, and I'm honored to be part of the 50th anniversary taping."
Even when the cameras are off, the venue retains its magical, air — audiences and performers alike know who else has stood on that stage, and how many people were completely engrossed in it. And the tapings work almost exactly the same, with little evidence there's a TV show in progress, except for Lickona's introduction and the constant repositioning of cameras.
"What's great about Austin City Limits is ... as much as you can with a television performance, you have a chance to see what the artists are really like," Lovett says. "When [on] Austin City Limits there's a taping, unlike typical television tapings, they don't interrupt the performer. You just do your show from start to finish, whatever you decide to do, and they tape it.... They don't fit what you're doing into their format, necessarily; they fit what they're doing around what the performer is doing. And so, in that sense, you have a chance to see a genuine performance."
He concludes, "I think that's one of the reasons the show has been successful for so long — because of its authenticity."
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Houstonians can score free tickets to The Woodlands 50th Anniversary Concert at this link. The rest of Lovett's tour schedule (which does not always include his Large Band) is available at lylelovett.com.
