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.

Photo courtesy of Lyle Lovett

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.

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Movie Review

Feuding couple fights for survival in dark comedy Over Your Dead Body

Photo courtesy of IFC Films

Jason Segel and Samara Weaving on Over Your Dead Body.

When dysfunctional couples are depicted in movies, about the worst that typically happens is an acrimonious divorce. But in the new comedy/thriller Over Your Dead Body, the husband-and-wife have already gone way past that point by the time they’re introduced to the audience, with their plans leaning toward murder.

Dan (Jason Segel) is a low-level filmmaker relegated to directing pop-up ads, while Lisa (Samara Weaving) is an actor making do in small theater productions. The film finds them heading toward a rare getaway to a remote lake cabin, but it’s clear from the start that the married couple has been at odds for months, if not years. As the film begins, Dan clumsily drops hints at an alibi for his planned murder of Lisa to his ailing dad (Paul Guilfoyle) and others.

His shoddy planning was already sussed out by Lisa, who turns the tables on him when he tries to attack her, revealing a plan of her own. The situation naturally heightens their shared enmity of each other, but their blind hatred turns out to reveal the presence of Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Todd (Keith Jardine), two escapees from a nearby prison who were helped by guard Allegra (Juliette Lewis). What was once a shared murder plan turns into a fight for survival, forcing Dan and Lisa to work together.

Directed by Jorma Taccone (The Lonely Island) and written by former SNL writers Nick Kocher and Briand McElhaney, the film aims to mine comedy out of darkness. Dan and Lisa’s ire for each other is palpable, and their interactions early in the film are uncomfortable. As the film turns increasingly violent with the introduction of other unsavory characters, most of the humor is derived from the creative ways people are attacked and the ultraviolence that results from them going after each other.

It’s a little tough to get fully invested in the story when the filmmakers throw the audience directly into the plot with almost zero setup. There’s not even a cursory montage of Dan and Lisa being in love, so it’s hard to care a lot about their current hate for each other. Likewise, the presence of the prison guard and escapees is completely random, and the three of them aren’t utilized well in the story despite having a couple of well-known actors portraying them.

The saving grace of the film, though, is the twists and turns it takes in the final act. Everyone on screen is put through the wringer, with each of them suffering multiple injuries or worse. The mayhem becomes so chaotic that it’s almost impossible to tell what’s going to happen next, which slightly makes up for the fact that the story as a whole is lackluster. Even though the audience knows they’re being manipulated, the sequences are entertaining enough to overcome that fact.

The cast as a whole is solid. Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Shrinking) uses his comic sensibility to keep the proceedings light. Weaving (Ready or Not) has done multiple movies in this vein, so she knows how to navigate the comedy/thriller waters. Olyphant feels a little out of place, but he has a presence that elevates his part. Lewis goes a little too manic in her part, and Jardine ably embodies the dumb brute.

The comedy history of Taccone, Segel, and Weaving keeps Over Your Dead Body as a positive experience even when the story doesn’t quite measure up. The film never becomes fully predictable, giving the audience a great dose of pandemonium that lifts it up despite its other faults.

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Over Your Dead Body is now playing in theaters.

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