Texas legend Lyle Lovett to release first album in 10 years

"12th of June" will be released the 13th of May. It's Lovett's first album since "Release Me" a decade ago.

Lyle Lovett releases "12th of June," his first album in a decade, in May.

Photo: Michael Wilson

On the 13th of May Lyle Lovett will release "12th of June," his first new album since "Release Me" a decade ago. The eleven-song album is anchored by the title track, a song about life and death and family set in San Jacinto County. Lovett last weekend at the Grand 1894 Opera House in Galveston, introduced the song by talking about an annual gathering next to a family cemetery there, in which the living and the departed were pulled together.

The title track was one of three songs from "12th of June" Lovett showcased at the Grand. He also played "Her Loving Man" and "Pants Is Overrated." The new record also includes an appreciation of bacon ("Pig Meat Man"), a contemplation of old friendships ("The Mocking Ones") and a sublime pair of quieter songs to close it: "Are We Dancing" and "On a Winter's Morning." Longtime fans will also recognize two songs from his live sets over the years, both showcases for vocalist Francine Reed: "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and "Gee Baby Ain't I Good to You," both having been cut decades ago by Nat King Cole.

LYLE LOVETT LOOKS BACK

"12th of June" is Lovett's first album for Verve Records, the storied jazz label, after more than three decades with Curb, the label that released his "Lyle Lovett" in 1986. Befitting the new home, he opens the album with "Cookin' at the Continental," an instrumental by Horace Silver (admittedly an artist who recorded for the Blue Note label).

自从他started writing songs in College Station in the 1970s and performing them at Houston's Anderson Fair soon after, Lovett has created a sound of his own with his mix of country, folk, jazz, blues and soul. He says of the new album, "I feel it's representative of the music I've been making my whole life."

Lovett is wrapping up a tour with his Acoustic Band with plans later this year to tour with his Large Band on a co-headlining trek with Chris Isaak. Tour dates here.

"12th of June" track list:

1.Cookin At the Continental
2. Pants Is Overrated
3.展翅高飞
4. Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You
5. Peel Me A Grape
6. Her Loving Man
7. 12th of June
8. Pig Meat Man
9. The Mocking Ones
10. Are We Dancing
11. On A Winters Morning

  • Andrew Dansby
    Andrew Dansby

    Andrew Dansby covers culture and entertainment, both local and national, for theHouston Chronicle. He came to the Chronicle in 2004 from Rolling Stone, where he spent five years writing about music. He'd previously spent five years in book publishing, working with George R.R. Martin's editor on the first two books in the series that would become TV's "Game of Thrones. He misspent a year in the film industry, involved in three "major" motion pictures you've never seen. He's written for Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, Texas Music, Playboy and other publications.

    Andrew dislikes monkeys, dolphins and the outdoors.