Livin’ large
UB listeners place trust in Lovett, and he doesn’t disappoint
Published: November 13, 2009, 12:30 am
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When a not-yet-30 year-old Lyle Lovett first broke out from the Texas songwriter scene in the mid-80s, he already carried with him a distinct voice, warm with wit and wisdom. He was weird-lookin’, silly and sophisticated in same song, and he couldn’t stick to any single style, but his vocal delivery was always consistent, getting the most meaning and emotion out of every turn of the phrase. Though completely unpredictable, every turn he made just felt right, and delivering with a demure demeanor, he seemed like someone one could trust.
That trust earns him a long leash from listeners while he floats effortlessly through nearly every genre of American music, as he and his Large Band laid before an adoring University at Buffalo Center for the Arts crowd Thursday night. Touring in support of his latest Lost Highway Records release, “Natural Forces,” it seemed, well, natural that he would open the show with the title track, which includes the line, “We loaded up in Buffalo/ Took 90-South down to Ohio.”
Instead, taking the stage with longtime left-hand man and cellist John Hagen, fiddler Stuart Duncan, and upright bassist Viktor Krauss, he offered a different new number in the ballad “Sun and Moon and Stars,” immediately after welcoming the crowd by thanking the university for inviting them back and complimenting the sound in the venue. As the next new cut, “Whooping Crane” built to its bridge, onto the stage came pedal steel player Buck Reid, pianist Jim Cox, guitarists Ray Herndon and Mitch Watkins, percussionist James Gilner and drummer Russ Kunkel.
All dapperly dressed, the band carried “Crane” to a delicate crescendo before kicking into “Tickle Toe,” the swinging instrumental workout that opens the last album, “It’s Not Big, It’s Large.” The hoedown “Farmer Brown/Chicken Reel” brought out three smooth soul singers in Sweet Pea Atkinson, Harry Bowens and Willie Greene Jr.
A resolute Lovett was lifted by the three singers in the gospel dirge “I Will Rise Up,” which broke into the break-beat funny funk of “Penguins.”
REVIEW
WHO: Lyle Lovett and His Large Band
WHEN: Thursday evening in the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts
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