That's Right, You're not.

Lyle Lovett. Had to write something about the thin man from Texas. My sweet daughter took me to KC to see him as a pop's day gift. (Thanks Bean!)

Simply put - he and his large band put together quite a show. They played almost two hours but it whisked by so quickly. Not in style but in substance he reminds me of Alison Kraus (ironic since her brother Viktor plays with Lyle) i.e. a back-up band of top notch musicians. I think every one of Mr. Lovett's bandmates could probably play anything with anybody. My complaint with the show was the mix - for music it was fine but when he spoke, his mic was different and much quieter so I often missed what he had to say.

The venue - Starlight Theater in KC - is a nice old-feeling place. For all I know it could be brand new. Reminded me of someplace else - not sure where -perhaps Blossom Music center near Cleveland or the Hollywood Bowl.

KD Lang opened and while she has great pipes, I'm not familiar with her work and she needs some help in moving around the stage, She's no dancer and not particularly graceful. She performed barefoot - which I guess doesn't matter but still struck me odd.

Lyle played lots of material I wasn't familiar with but still enjoyed it all.

One surprise - I'm from Texas; that's right - you're not, so for me he will always be a little bit of a Texas swing band but if I had to categorize this particular show - jazzier. Nothing wrong with that - just was.

Since we live in the country (much to the chagrin of my daughter) she allowed that I could wear my cowboy hat. Thinking this would be at least a partly western crowd, I wore it along with my jeans and boots. I didn't see a single other cowboy hat in the place. Seems like the attire of choice for me was a tropical print shirt, shorts and sandals. I didn't get the memo.

But the best part of the show was spending several hours with my daughter. We talked about music, the Vietnam war, my screenplay - you name it. In the 2+ hour ride up, the couple of hours waiting for the show to start (we mis-timed our travel by quite a bit) and the 2+ our ride home gave us plenty of time to talk. Since she lives on her own now (all that big girl stuff) we don't have as much quality time anymore. So even if Lyle had been a bust (he wasn't) the time and trip would have been worth it.

So thanks to Lyle and special thanks to Bean!

p.s. Lyle does not have an official artist web-site or I'd link to it. The unofficial one hasn't been updated since 2005 or so.