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Music? It's His Family That Made Lyle Love It

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By JOHN GEROME, The Associated Press

Published: September 21, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Lyle Lovett has recorded gold records, acted in films and traveled the world playing music.

But the lanky Texan says his greatest joy is rescuing the family homestead from developers.

'Most of the place was sold by the family in 1980 before the bottom dropped out of the oil market,' said 49-year-old Lovett, who shares the 200-acre spread with his mother, his uncle and several head of cattle in Klein, Texas, 28 miles north of Houston.

'I was able to buy it back from the investment group that bought it. I've put most of it back together, and for me that's been my greatest accomplishment.'

In many ways, Lovett's music is an extension of his home and his family. On the new album, 'It's Not Big It's Large,' he sings in 'South Texas Girl' of cruising the back roads with his parents in a '58 Fairlane: 'But now looking back, it seems like it was everything, singing with Mom, just so we could hear ourselves sing.'

Like most of his work, the album - which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard country chart, the best showing of his career - is an amalgamation of country, folk, rock, gospel, jazz and blues. The title is a nod to his 17-piece Large Band and their flirtations with big-band jazz.

'Writing songs is ... really a reaction to my day-to-day life,' he says. 'For me, writing is just an exercise in trying to figure everything out.'

Lovett's tunes are often playful, eclectic and subtle. One friend, fellow Texas singer-songwriter Joe Ely, says he heard Lovett's 1988 song 'L.A. County' several times before he realized it was a murder ballad.

'He takes a situation and puts people in the same conversation or the same room with all the subtle things that are said. It's never a big thing. It's the little things that make the songs so entertaining because everyone can relate to it. They either want to have said what was said in the song, or they have already said it at some time in their lives,' Ely says.

Over 18 years, Lovett has toured occasionally with Ely, Guy Clark and John Hiatt in a stripped-down songwriters show. Hiatt says Lovett's country songs are more authentic than most anything coming out of Nashville.

Lovett tours steadily with His Large Band and releases new material every three or four years. And, whenever possible, he heads home.

'Nothing is more important than family, and it makes me feel really good to keep that place together. My mom will be 78 in November and my uncle Calvin 73 in October. To be there with them and have a place we all can use and enjoy ... it gives me a good feeling.'

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