Live Review: Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group, Cadogan Hall, London, 25th January 2025

This wasn’t billed as a music-and-storytelling show, but that’s what it was, and it was all the better for it. With a running time of almost two and a half hours and a set list of 20 numbers, that left plenty of time for the singer to tell quirky, fascinating, and downright funny stories about the songs he played and the five stellar musicians on stage with him. The result was an evening of superb musical prowess with extra warmth and charm.

It began with the quietly sinister ‘Pontiac’ from Lovett’s second album in 1987. It’s not a song he plays too often these days and it stood in major contrast to ‘Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom’ which followed hot on its heels. Even if you didn’t know his band members’ history, this exuberant traditional tune told you there was some serious talent up there.

Over the course of the evening, Lovett told us in his soft and hesitant voice that Russ Kunkel on drums and Leland Sklar on bass first came to London in 1971 with James Taylor, Carole King and Danny Kortchmar (They filmed a ‘BBC In Concert’ which you can find online.) Then they went on to play with just about every famous musician everywhere. We also learned that fiddle player Stuart Duncan has worked with Emmylou Harris, George Strait, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan and Robert Plant; guitar and mandolin wizard Jeff White with Alison Krauss, Vince Gill and The Chieftains and pianist Jim Cox with everyone from Elton John and Streisand to Mark Knopfler, James Brown, Leonard Cohen and even The Monkees.

Back in the USA, these guys also form the core of Lyle Lovett and his Large Band, the singer’s 14-strong ensemble with horns and backing singers. These five musicians could have their pick of superstar employment and you have to conclude that they choose to spend their autumn years touring with Lovett because they really like him and his music. The man himself told us that “every idea I have, they make it better” and that “playing music and just hanging out” with them was one of his life’s blessings. Every time one of them took a solo he turned to watch with his lopsided grin expressing pure pleasure.

Lovett has recorded his fair share of cover versions down the years but tonight he played nearly all originals and co-writes, ranging from ‘Cowboy Man’ and ‘This Old Porch’ from his 1986 debut “Lyle Lovett” to five cuts from 2022’s “12th of June”, his most recent studio album. One title, not yet on record, was co-written with his young children. He told how he got back to his tour bus after a US gig last year, expecting to find his six-year-old twins fast asleep. Instead he found them tearing up and down the bus chanting what became the chorus of ‘It’s A Naked Party’. “My wife was just collapsed on the couch with an expression of… defeat,” he said. So he turned their chant into a song. Daughter Ella demanded unicorns and son Will wanted dinosaurs. They got them.

This was one of three impromptu numbers not on the band’s written set list for the evening. The second was ‘Creeps Like Me’, another somewhat sinister song not often heard live these days. It had been specially requested by Ian Winwood, a British journalist in the audience who had interviewed Lovett for an excellent piece published on the Daily Telegraph website a few days earlier. In 55 years of going to gigs this was the first time I had ever heard a song dedicated to a music writer. Lovett was a journalism major at Texas A&M University in the early 1980s so he may have more sympathy with the profession than most musicians!

The third change from the setlist was the title track from “12th of June”, which was played near the end of the show in place of the same album’s ‘Pig Meat Man’ (according to Leland Sklar’s list which I managed to photograph). I’m so glad they made that substitution. The heartfelt song Lovett wrote to celebrate the day his twins were born was a real emotional highlight, with pure and soaring vocal harmonies from Stuart Duncan and Jeff White that gave me a sensory overload of musical pleasure.

The sound in Cadogan Hall was superb throughout, with each instrument and voice as clear as a bell, and the whole adding up to a rich and beautiful tapestry. Reminiscing between songs about his previous visits, bass man Sklar said it was easily one of his favourite rooms in the world.

It’s worth pointing out, but not making a big deal of, that Lovett was suffering from an intense bout of flu during this short UK and Ireland tour. This was audible in his voice and he was continually sipping from bottles of Evian and a large tumbler of what may have been herbal tea. This man is my favourite male singer still alive today and it was a shame not to hear him in full voice, but he did an admirable job. One of the first stories he told was how after the tour’s first show his publicist had called and ordered him to tell his audiences about the problem. “Why?” he asked her. “I’m just pushing on through.” “Because the first review is in,” she replied. “It’s very positive but it also says that you can’t hit the notes any more because you’re getting old.” “Well, I am getting old,” said the 67-year-old singer. “Getting old is a privilege.”

It was definitely a privilege to have Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group fly across the pond and play for us. I looked around as we queued to leave the hall after the final barnstorming encore of ‘That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas)’. All I could see were happy faces with ear-to-ear grins.