Artist Lyle Lovett And His Large Band

A descendent of ’70s singer-songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson, and Jerry Jeff Walker that mined the gray area between 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 album 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.”

Updated 10/27/2010