One More Time

Lyle Lovett: The SXSW Interview

Austin Convention Center, Saturday, March 15 Sure the sun was shining and there were hundreds of bands playing around town on Saturday afternoon, but that didn't stop several hundred people from showing up to hear a conversation with Lyle Lovett. With Texas Monthly Editor Evan Smith acting as interrogator (isn't there anyone besides Smith that knows how to conduct an interview in this town?), Lovett displayed his wit and crooked smile in an hour that was breezy and cheerful. Smith got Lovett to talk about his beginnings as a performer at Texas A&M on Robert Earl Keen's front porch, his early days in Nashville, and playing Houston's Anderson Fair where he met two of his seminal influences, Nanci Griffith and Eric Taylor. Lovett skirted the issue of what really happened when he got stomped by a bull on the family farm last year, saying he didn't remember even when pressed. They discussed acting, working with Robert Altman, and Lovett's new Smile, a collection of songs from various films. In response to the hot news topic of the day, the anti-war comments of Natalie Maines, Lovett had a curious take. "There are appropriate times for appropriate people who are groundbreaking and have important voices, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, for example, to speak. But just because you have the forum doesn't mean you always should use it." The biggest news of the day was that the lanky Texan is set to release an album of new songs this September, his first new album in nearly seven years.