COWBOY'S HEART
I was 59 when our twins were born… nothing in my life has been so much fun, says country star Lyle Lovett
Lovett was previously married to Hollywood legend Julia Roberts
ALTHOUGH you’re unlikely to catch him wrangling cattle, the cowboy spirit still courses through Lyle Lovett’s veins.
Horses have been part of the Texan singer’s life since his parents bought him a Shetland pony called Tiny when he was a tiny two-year-old.
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“I grew up riding all over my grandpa’s farm, pretending to be a cowboy,” he tells me via video call in advance of a rare visit to the UK. “Like all the kids in the late Fifties and early Sixties, I watched classic American cowboy movies and television shows.
“My favourite was Stoney Burke, starring Jack Lord (best known for Hawaii Five-O) as a champion rodeo rider.”
Lovett breaks into a broad smile as he reminisces about his monochrome heroes in jeans, checked shirts, ten-gallon hats and sturdy boots.
“I liked Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, all those great Westerns,” he enthuses.
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“Combining that stuff with being able to go out and jump on my own pony was simply wonderful.”
This, I imagine, explains why the first song on his self-titled debut album, released in 1986, is a fiddle-fuelled country shuffle called Cowboy Man.
“Now I ain’t never been no cowboy/But heaven knows I try,” Lovett sings in his crystal clear delivery, evoking dreams of dusty trails, trusty steeds and vast prairies under open skies.
Another of his best-loved songs, If I Had A Boat, from second album Pontiac, was written when he was 20 but inspired by a vivid childhood memory involving his pony — and water.
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‘I get to sing and play at their school’
He says: “One particular day at my parents’ house, I found myself next to a little pond where cows drank and cooled themselves in summertime.
“I was ten or 11 and thought it would be a good idea to ride Tiny from one side of it to the other. We didn’t make it!
“There came a point when he had to start swimming and I had to start swimming. We extracted ourselves separately.
“I always thought to myself, ‘If only we’d had a boat’.”
Riding horses, racing motorcycles in my high school years — all the things I’ve ever done for fun — weren’t as much fun as being a dad
Lyle Lovett
Remembering his first equine friend, Lovett adds: “Tiny was very good to me. He lived until I was in college.”
To this day, the rugged outdoor existence continues to enchant the 67-year-old who I hesitate to call a country singer because of his freewheeling explorations of jazz, swing, blues, folk and gospel.
But, in 2017, something happened to put EVERYTHING in the shade — he became a father for the first time.
His second wife, April Kimble, (the first was Julia Roberts, you may remember) gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy.
“I was 59 when our children were born,” says Lovett.
“Riding horses, racing motorcycles in my high school years — all the things I’ve ever done for fun — weren’t as much fun as being a dad.
“I’ve never enjoyed anything this much, even though the mornings are crazy. I was five minutes late talking to you because we were just getting back from school.
“Occasionally, I get to sing and play at the children’s school. Their classmates all know me and some give me a hug.”
Lovett expected fatherhood to be “gratifying and fulfilling on a big emotional level” but he wasn’t prepared for just how life-changing it would be. “And the hardest thing for me is to be away from my family,” he continues.
“Even when I’m away on tour, on my days off I’ll board the first Southwest Airlines flight I can find and get home as quickly as I can, even for a day.”
Lovett’s latest album, 12th Of June, delayed by the pandemic but finally appearing in 2022, is his first since the twins arrived.
That date is their birthday. “Know of all the days I loved/I loved best the 12th of June,” he croons softly on the title track.
He explains: “As their first birthday approached, I was out running errands by myself in the truck, picking up pastries for breakfast from a bakery.
“And that melody and those words just wouldn’t leave me alone.”
Another recent song is a window into Lovett’s domestic bliss.
Of the rhythmic, tongue-in-cheek Pants Is Overrated, he explains: “When the children were little babies, they often resisted getting dressed.
“I thought to myself, ‘Well, maybe they’re right.
“Maybe we’re the ones that have it all wrong. Maybe it would be better if we all didn’t get dressed!’”
Keeping up the family tradition, the twins now have their own pony, courtesy of Lovett’s 95-year-old mother.
“My mom had given up on me making her a grandmother years ago but now she is one,” he says. “She gave the children a little pony for their fourth birthday, which they share pretty well.”
Saddling up plays a big part in Lovett’s adult life, too. He competes in reining events with his “once-in-a-lifetime” steed Smart And Shiney.
Reining originates from cattle herding and involves guiding horses through precise patterns of circles, spins and stops — a dusty, dramatic version of dressage for cowboys!
I’m speaking to Lovett to mark his UK shows in January with his acoustic group, including two nights at London’s Cadogan Hall.
His other outfit is his mesmerising jazz-leaning Large Band, which means 14 musicians on stage plus himself.
“I appreciate that bigness of sound when I’m with them,” he decides. “When I’m with the smaller group, I appreciate the space.”
On the same trip to these shores, this genre-defying artist will receive the International Trailblazer honour at the UK Americana Awards, a gala night at Hackney Church also giving special recognition to soul legend Candi Staton and Irish singer CMAT.
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During our hour-long Zoom call — Lovett is in Austin and I’m in London — I’m struck by his humility and grace as he talks about his “idyllic childhood”, his life in music, his inspirations, his young family and, of course, horses.
He elaborates on cowboy culture and why Texas has produced such a rich vein of songwriting talent.
Lovett was at the forefront of a cool, fiercely independent country movement in the late Eighties alongside another Texan, Steve Earle.
I ask if he saw himself as a trailblazer. “Oh gosh no, it didn’t feel like it,” he replies. “I was just doing something that I loved.” For Lovett, it was more a case of following in the footsteps of his Texan heroes, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, both consummate songwriters who became his friends but are sadly no longer with us.
Then consider that country “outlaws” Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings all hail from the Lone Star state and you’ll understand his modesty.
In contrast to Tennessee’s Music City, Nashville, where big labels with songwriting teams and crack session men applied constraints, these were singers who liked to call the shots.
Lovett says: “The consistent thread throughout those Texas songwriters was freedom of expression. They weren’t writing to a specific formula.
“They were telling stories in whatever way would be most effective. That appealed to me.
“Texas is its own sort of place. It’s away from the business centres and the music businesses, away from New York, Los Angeles and Nashville.
“There aren’t as many rules. You’re not worried about every live set being observed by someone from a record company who you think might change your life.”
To be self-sustaining, independent and free, that’s the deal of the cowboy
Lyle Lovett
In 1998, Lovett released a covers album in homage to his home state’s songwriters called Step Inside This House.
It featured tracks by Clark, Van Zandt and others, including an artist of key importance to his early development, Michael Martin Murphey.
“I saw Michael in the spring of 1975 at Texas A&M when his song Wildfire was a big pop hit,” says Lovett, referring in passing to the university where he studied German and journalism.
“He played the first half of the show by himself with his acoustic guitar, and captivated an entire basketball arena of students.
Murphey was from Dallas. He had long blond hair. He was like a cowboy — and he had a song on the pop charts.
“That was a green light for all sorts of possibilities in my mind. The idea that you didn’t have to be restricted to one style.”
Seeing Murphey helped Lovett to establish his own ethos as a performer when he started out on his career.
He had already been emboldened by the encouragement of his parents “to take guitar and piano lessons” and by their diverse record collection which included “everyone from Nat King Cole and Ray Charles to Ray Price and Merle Haggard”.
Lovett says his taste in music grew even wider when he tuned into pop radio during his formative years in Houston.
“The Beatles had a huge impact on me in terms of songs. I found myself thinking at an early age, ‘How are songs put together? What makes a song?’.”
He also devoured country radio, songs which chimed with his passion for horses and the great wide open.
“To be self-sustaining, independent and free, that’s the deal of the cowboy,” he affirms.
“It’s about being gallant, the equivalent of a knight from medieval times.”
‘I was so thrilled’
One of Lovett’s breaks came in 1985 when he sang harmony vocals for another Texan singer, the late Nanci Griffith.
She also recorded his song If I Were The Woman You Wanted. The title track of her album, Lone Star State Of Mind, recorded in 1986, could have been written for Lovett.
His debut album appeared that year and came with liner notes by Guy Clark, who was esteemed for storytelling songs such as LA Freeway and Desperados Waiting For A train.
“I was so thrilled and in disbelief about that,” says Lovett.
“It was beyond my wildest expectations that someone like Guy would even listen to my songs. To have met one of my heroes felt like the biggest privilege in the world.”
Lovett also spares a thought for Townes Van Zandt, who died aged 52 after a long struggle with alcohol addiction but left behind fabulous songs such as Pancho And Lefty, To Live Is To Fly and If I Needed You.
He says: “Townes was nice to me because he knew that Guy and I were friends.
“Of course I was aware of his history but he was actually a very light-hearted, playful person. He reminded me a lot of my uncles who, when I was a child, would say something a little bit sideways just to see if you were keeping up.”
You have to think, ‘Why am I standing here in the middle of the stage with the brightest light on me?’
Lyle Lovett
No conversation with a Texas songwriter can go by without a mention of the great Willie Nelson, still going strong at 91.
Lovett has shared stages and passed time with him on many occasions and says: “Willie is one of the kindest, most spiritual people you’ll ever meet.
“All of a sudden, your heartbeat drops. He has such a calming presence about him, gracious and welcoming.
“Whenever you’re with Willie Nelson, you feel like you’re in the right place.”
Before our chat comes to an end, I ask Lovett how he sees HIMSELF more than four decades into his career.
“You have to think, ‘Why am I standing here in the middle of the stage with the brightest light on me?” he answers thoughtfully.
“I don’t have the physical gifts that other singers have in terms of overpowering a room.
“But I think that my perspective and my point of view are the best things I have to offer.”
It seems that this free-spirited Texan, this cowboy at heart, still has much to offer.
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And that he won’t be riding off into the sunset any time soon.
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LYLE ON RANDY NEWMAN
WHO isn’t a fan of Randy Newman?” says Lyle Lovett. He’s recalling how they duetted on Newman’s You’ve Got A Friend In Me, the much-loved Toy Story song.
Bearing in mind his cowboy credentials, a song about Andy’s friendship with Woody made him the ideal candidate.
Lovett first met Newman in 1984 when, still unknown to the wider world, he served as local opener at the great man’s Houston show “in a little club called Rockefellers, which used to be a bank”.
He says: “Randy was in the green room, the old bank vault, listening to the baseball World Series on a clock radio and he invited me to join him. He was so kind.”
More than a decade later, in 1995, Newman sang on a Lovett album, duetting on Long Tall Texan from The Road To Ensenada.
THAT Toy Story song soon followed, proving that the pair “had a friend” in each other. “Watching Randy in action at Paramount Movie Soundstage, conducting a 90-piece orchestra, was a masterclass,” says Lovett.
- The UK Americana Awards take place at Hackney Church, London, on Jan 23. Lyle Lovett plays Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Jan 19 (part of Celtic Connections), Dublin National Concert Hall, Jan 20, Belfast Ulster Hall, Jan 21, London Cadogan Hall, Jan 24 & 25.
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