http://www.lylelovett.com Just a couple of nights ago I made the trip to Durham to see four time grammy winner Lyle Lovett and his large band. This was the first shot I had available in four years to see the large band show. I have seen Lyle many times now with the found starting back in the late 1970’s as I have written somewhere in this blog before. Oh here is a link: http://downsouthradiohour.blogspot.com/search?q=lyle+lovett So I won’t bore anyone with my historical concert counts. I’ll focus on the experience of this particular show. I arrived on a very mild sunny August afternoon and parked in my normal garage spot that one only gets a shot at if you arrive to a show early at this venue. I walked out of the garage with my cargo pockets full of normal gear I carry to all concerts I attend…Leica theater glasses, Sony G camera, my baby blue ear plugs, and of course my ticket…oh the ticket…that is at will call. It was one of those great seats that would bring a fortune on a ticket seller as it was row A center. I knew what that would mean. First, the DPAC is not camera friendly. I just accept that if I go to a show there. It is a great house with friendly people but that camera policy bugs me. Enough of that, on with the story, I walked by the end of the garage as I always park above the buses and trucks holding gear and artists. There were three million dollar Tennesee-tagged Prevost buses lined up on the street next to the curb. The slides were a bit out in the edge of the street. Inside the ‘Large Band” was chilling before the show having made the trip to Durham from Knoxville the night before. I walked on by to the will call window and retrieved my ticket. I eased upstairs where I ran into a few guys who wanted to talk music and happenings related to music. I stopped by and picked up my four dollar bottle of filtered water (insert “ugh” here) prior to sliding into a chair next to a huge piece of glass overlooking historic downtown Durham to wait for the doors to open. After a few minutes the doors did open but I was talking to a guy I just met about the upcoming Pono music player release and fidelity in general. Before it was over it was five minutes to showtime and I still wasn’t in my seat. I went on in. Lyle was a bit late taking the stage 15 minutes after the published start time for whatever reason. As the band came out I counted twelve of them including one of my two of my favorite drummers, Russ Kunkel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Kunkel . Russ and I are in a photo somewhere that was taken one night at Louie’s Backyard in Key West at 3:00 AM. But the story of that night is for another time. I smiled at this moment and thought “this is gonna’ be a good night.” Then out comes Viktor Krauss with is large stand up bass. http://www.viktorkrauss.com/biography/ I thought as I saw him about my time at Merlefest and how I helped him move his bass off the backstage. He is a very nice guy and one of the best in the business. If you click on the link I provided you will also see that Viktor is the brother of Alison Krauss. They both do very well in the music business. Francine Reed was on vocals and has a history with Lyle going back many years. http://www.francinereed.net Lyle said Francine changed his life when he met her. There was a full horn section featuring the “Muscle Shoals Horns.” Love the sound…there were moments where the sound was like a listening room and I was so close you could hear the blending of the tones from the horns acoustically vs the amplification which was very cool. The guitar amplifiers were very close to me and the front of house speakers were high over my head. I was listening to the stage not the PA and loving the sound of being so close. I could go on about the guitar and the grand piano but all I can say is go see this show while you can. Lyle is such a nice guy and he takes time between songs at times to talk to and feature the entire band. He also took time to recognize a ten year old boy who was sitting right behind me. He wrote a letter to Lyle requesting a song so Lyle asked him to stand and talked to him from the stage. It was very cool. The show lasted well over two hours with no breaks. That is how you deliver to an audience. Give them their moneys worth. I got mine on this night, other than the over-priced four dollar bottled water. No photos as requested but that was ok. The show was outstanding.
Here is a video link to an older version of the song that made me stand on my feet at this show. The video really doesn’t do it justice. You really need to go feel the current version of this song as the talent on the stage goes from one to another solo building the tempo. It blew me away. I loved it. Until next time, I’ll see you, down the road.