BWW Reviews: Lyle Lovett Leaves New Albany Audience With More Than Tricks

Perhaps there is no better time to see Lyle Lovett than on Halloween Night. Performing Oct. 31 at New Albany's McCoy Center for the Performing Arts, Lovett changed styles and genres like he was shedding costumes. He flitted from country to jazz to blues to rock, delighting the nearly sold out crowd.

"I'm surprised more of you aren't out trick-or-treating," Lovett said, using the reflection of his guitar as a spotlight over the crowd before stopping on a man wearing a jack-o-lantern shirt near the front of the stage. "Now that's the kind of shirt that lands you in the front row. Can we get a spotlight on this shirt?"

That's what Lovett did throughout his two-and-half hour set. He didn't stand in the spotlight but he reflected to the audience and those around him. His five piece "Large Acoustic Group" featured drummer Russ Kunkel (who played for the likes of George Harrison, James Taylor and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young among others), fiddler Luke Bulla, bassist Viktor Krauss (Alison Krauss' brother), guitarist Keith Sewell and cellist and long-time Lovett collaborator John Hagen.

When he did step into the limelight, Lovett used his breezy, off-the-cuff banter as a perfect accomplice to his music. He dug deeply into his catalog to find some tunes perfectly suited to match the holiday's theme.

Before launching into "Creeps Like Me," Lovett told the backstory to the song, talking about a woman he was interested in who had recently received an inheritance from her grandmother. "So I said 'if you don't mind me asking, what did you get?' She said she had gotten her grandmother's gold tooth, which she planned to melt down and make into a ring. I was thinking 'that's most disturbing thing I've heard of.'"

Later in the show, Lovett introduced the ballad "L.A. County" as being recently being voted as one of the Rolling Stone's top 10 creepiest country murder ballads. The song describes how the protagonist interrupts the wedding of his ex-girlfriend with a Colt .45. "Well, I did not say much," he sang. "I just stood there watching as that .45 told them goodbye."

Fortunately most of the Halloween set list wasn't nearly as dark. Lovett was at his best when he was at his quirkiest, performing "She's No Lady, She's My Wife," "Choke My Chicken," "If I Had a Boat," and the gospel-infused "Church" with a wry smile. But his ballad "Nobody Knows Me," where his raspy, well-traveled voice balanced perfectly with Hagen's cello, was the highlight of the show.

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