La to the Left, La to the Right

Happy 45th Birthday to Lyle Lovett, who is indeed the Man. In honor of his birthday, I'm wearing my If I Had a Boat t-shirt (well, under my sweater anyway, it got cold!), and listening to my entire Lyle collection in my playlist.

If you're new to Lyle, I recommend Live In Texas as a starter kit. It's got all his best songs, and his live versions are even better than the album versions. Then you have to get what I consider essential Lyle, even though eventually you'll own all his CDs. Here goes, in order: Road to Ensenada, Pontiac, Step Inside This House, and then I Love Everybody. My buddy Ben E. will swear you need Lyle Lovett and His Large Band too, but he's wrong. That's gotta be my least favorite Lyle CD.

Road to Ensenada was the first Lyle CD I bought and is still my favorite. It's his last CD with all new material, back in 1996, and represents the quintessential Lyle to me. It's a little bitter as much of it's about the fallout from his and Julia Roberts' failed marriage. However it's also very funny and joyful too because about of the songs about meeting her and being in love -- Fiona, Her First Mistake, and the secret song, Girl in the Corner. Damn this is a good CD! I think I like this CD so much because it encapsulates and balances so neatly the two sides of Lyle: his songs are either laugh out loud funny or cry yourself to sleep sad, and many are both at the same time.

Pontiac is older Lyle, and has many classics including Lights of LA County, which you have to hear to understand, and Walk Through the Bottomlands which is a duet with Emmylou Harris.

Step Inside This House is very close to being my favorite Lyle CD, which is odd because he didn't write any of the songs on this 2-CD set, and it's usually his songwriting that I like so much. These are all songs from his Texas songwriting heroes, and they're all great. They still have that Lyle-feel... he definitely makes them his own. Alison Krauss sings backup on several key songs.

I Love Everybody came out right before Road to Ensenada, and is very similar in style. It was the last CD of his I bought, but is quickly becoming one of my favorites.