Lyle Lovett

A descendent of ’70s singer-songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson, and Jerry Jeff Walker who mined the gray area among rock, folk, and country, Lyle Lovett purposely removed himself from the big-hatted arena bombast of his Nashville peers in the mid ’80s—a wise move, considering his unique appearance and darkly comic lyrical sensibility would have hampered any chances for mainstream success anyway. Instead, Lovett’s been a model of idiosyncratic consistency, which can be frustrating even for longtime fans. His covers-heavy 2009 record, Natural Forces, for example, contains some of his best mid-tempo crooners in years, but they’re awkwardly slotted next to tracks like the one-joke novelty “Farmer Brown/Chicken Reel” and the ill-advised “It’s Rock And Roll.” He appears here behind his new album, Release Me, released at the end of February.

Updated 02/23/2012