Lyle Lovett (album)

Updated on Oct 23, 2023

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Released 1986 Label MCA/Curb		Length 32:30
Recorded Chaton Recordings, Scottsdale, Arizona Genre country, folk, singer-songwriter Producer Tony Brown, Lyle Lovett

Lyle Lovett is Lovett's 1986 eponymous debut album. By the mid-1980s Lovett had already distinguished himself in the burgeoning Texas singer-songwriter scene. He had performed in the New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1980 and returned to win in 1982. In 1984 Lovett recorded a four song demo with the help of the Phoenix band, J. David Sloan and the Rogues. His music had begun to be distributed by the Fast Folk Musical Magazine

Nanci Griffith had previously recorded Lovett's "If I Were the Man You Wanted" as "If I Were the Woman You Wanted" for her 1984 album, Once in a Very Blue Moon. Lovett appears on the album as a vocalist and even appears on the cover of her Last of the True Believers album.

Chart performance

Lovett's debut reached number 14 on Billboard's chart for Top Country Albums.

Critical acclaim

Lyle Lovett was ranked #91 in Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of the 1980s. and both Velvet and the Italian magazine Il Mucchio Selvaggio also cited it as one of the top 100 albums of the decade. Allmusic compares the album to Steve Earle's Guitar Town, calling it, "one of the most promising and exciting debut albums to come out of Nashville in the 1980s." Robert Christgau described Lovett's debut as "Writes like Guy Clark, only plainer, sings like Jesse Winchester only countrier."

Track listing

All songs by Lyle Lovett, except "This Old Porch" by Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen.

"Cowboy Man" – 2:48
"God Will" – 2:13
"Farther Down the Line" – 3:05
"This Old Porch" – 4:16
"Why I Don't Know" – 2:41
"If I Were the Man You Wanted" – 3:57
"You Can't Resist It" – 3:08
"The Waltzing Fool" – 3:49
"An Acceptable Level of Ecstasy (The Wedding Song)" – 3:30
"Closing Time" – 3:43

Musicians

Lyle Lovett – vocals, acoustic guitar; background vocals ("You Can't Resist It")

Ray Herndon – electric rhythm guitar, background vocals; electric lead guitar ("Farther Down the Line" and "Why I Don't Know")

Tom Mortensen – steel guitar

Billy Williams – electric lead guitar; saxophone arrangements

Vince Gill – electric rhythm guitar ("You Can't Resist It")

Jon Goin – electric rhythm and lead guitars ("You Can't Resist It")

Mac McAnally – acoustic lead guitar ("God Will", "Farther Down the Line" and "If I Were the Man You Wanted")

Mathew McKenzie – bass

Emory Gordy, Jr. – bass ("Farther Down the Line")

Mark Prentice – organ; piano ("God Will" and "Farther Down the Line")

Matt Rollings – acoustic and electric piano

John Jarvis – Synthesizer ("You Can't Resist It")

Jeff Borree – drums

Bob Warren – drums ("Farther Down the Line", "This Old Porch" and "An Acceptable Level of Ecstasy")

James Gilmer – congas

Glen Duncan – fiddle

Steve Marsh – saxophones

J. David Sloan – background vocals

Rosanne Cash – background vocals ("You Can't Resist It")

Francine Reed – background vocals ("An Acceptable Level of Ecstasy")

Production

Producers – Tony Brown and Lyle Lovett

Associate Producer – Billy Williams

Recorded at Chaton Recordings, Scottsdale, Arizona

Engineer – Steven Moore

Second Engineer – Andy Seagle

Overdubs and Remix at Teasure Isle Recorders, Nashville, Tennessee

Remixed – Gene Eichelberger

Second Engineers – Tom Der and Tom Harding

Mastered at Mastertonics using the JVC Audio Digital Mastering System

Mastering – Glen Meadows

Digital editing – Milan Bogdan

Compact Disc master tap prepared by Glen Meadows and Milan Bogdan

Artwork

Simon Levy – art direction

Peter Nash – photography

Mickey Braithwaite – design

Kate Gillon & Sherri Halford – CD coordination

Guy Clark – liner notes

References

Lyle Lovett (album) Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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