Lyle Lovett’s approach over the last 30 years has been more or less anchored in two styles: rockabilly and the singer-songwriter troubadour period of the 1970s.
When his self-titled debut appeared in 1986, Lovett stood out for his wry, direct songs with a sometimes cynical edge. They unfurled in spare arrangements that evoked the country twang of another era.
Doing things his own way, Lovett has sold millions of albums and won four Grammys, with an eccentric approach that at times has folded in elements of jazz, blues and rock. Lyrically, he often switches his approach, from straightforward conversational looks at love to dense, ambitious storytelling.
Lyle Lovett and His Large Band will headline the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach on Tuesday night. The concert is also the seventh in the annual Cox Benefits shows, which support youth education in Virginia.
Before you go, here are five things to know about Lovett.
The native Texan comes from a long line of German settlers who established farms in the South and Midwest in the 1850s. Lovett was born and raised on the family’s horse ranch in Klein, named after his great-grandfather Adam Klein, a Bavarian weaver.
While attending Texas A&M University, Lovett studied journalism and German. As an undergraduate, he performed cover songs and folk tunes in local clubs. In graduate school, he briefly studied in Germany. Upon his return in the early ’80s, he decided to pursue a career in music, writing his own songs.
On her third album, 1984’s “Once in a Very Blue Moon,” Griffith, whom Lovett had interviewed a few years earlier for his college paper, recorded his song “If I Were the Woman You Wanted.” He also sang on the album as well as on Griffith’s 1985 follow-up, “The Last of the True Believers.” The next year, Lovett landed his first recording contract with the now-defunct MCA label.
In the mid-’80s, while country was dominated by the amiable ballads and country swingers of fellow Texan George Strait, Lovett blurred the edges, his lyrics sometimes darker than what was usually heard on country radio. He may not have been a commercial powerhouse right out of the gate, but critics took to Lovett right away. Rolling Stone ranked his debut album at No. 91 in the magazine’s “100 Best Albums of the 1980s.”
After three weeks of dating, Lovett married Julia Roberts in the summer of 1993. At the time, she was one of the hottest actresses around, and Lovett’s career had taken off with four gold albums released between 1988 and 1992. But the marriage lasted less than two years. Career demands reportedly got in the way, but the two remained friends.
If you go
Who: Lyle Lovett and His Large Band
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, 201 Market St., Virginia Beach
Tickets: $65 – $125, www.sandlercenter.org, 757-385-2787
Rashod Ollison, 757-446-2732, rashod.ollison@pilotonline.com
