Hank Ebert | Special to The Roanoke Times
It's difficult to decide what was more entertaining about the Lyle Lovett show -- the oddball asides or the fantastic music.
Let's start with the music. I had to leave at the end of the set, to make deadline, but apparently there was an encore, which means that the act played nearly 2.5 hours. That's a marathon set, and though players came and went from the stage, Lovett never took a break (though he didn't appear until after the opening instrumental, "The Blues Walk").
Lovett's adaptation of the traditional "I Will Rise Up" was haunting, with its stare into many faces of death "at every turn row." It included amazing harmonies from backing singers Willie Green Jr., Sir Harry Bowens and Sweet Pea Atkinson.
Green stood out with bass lines that sounded like they came from deep down in a cavern. Atkinson and Bowens, formerly of the band Was (Not Was), are church-steeped soul men who can do all kinds of things to a line or two of music.
Other musical highlights: "Farmer Brown/Chicken Reel", with its chorus of "I'm gonna choke my chicken till the sun goes down"; The equally goofy but musically different "Its Rock And Roll," co-written years ago with Robert Earl Keen; and his latest title cut, "Natural Forces."
He was trying to explain the latter's meaning when a couple of people broke in with questions. A man asked something about Lovett's beloved game, football, and a woman asked the whereabouts of longtime Lovett backup singer Francine Reed.
"And I always love these question-and-answer sessions," he said, to audience laughter, before telling the crowd that Reed has a gig in Seattle that will keep her for a while. "I'll tell her you said hi," he said to the woman.
Other musical highlights: Oldie-but-goodie crowd favorites "If I Had A Boat", "L.A. County" and "Nobody Knows Me." But he didn't just stick to the old stuff. Eight songs were from the past two albums, "Natural Forces" and "It's Not Big It's Large."
The only disappointment for me is just a quibble -- I've heard "The Blues Walk" a bunch of times. Too bad the band didn't open with the instrumental "Tickle Toe," from "It's Not Big ...". I've been digging the band's version of that Lester Young song, and would've loved to have heard it live.
