{"id":4976,"date":"2012-02-17T21:40:16","date_gmt":"2012-02-18T04:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4976"},"modified":"2012-02-17T21:40:58","modified_gmt":"2012-02-18T04:40:58","slug":"lyle-lovett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/02\/lyle-lovett\/","title":{"rendered":"LYLE LOVETT"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

<\/h1>\n

L<\/strong>YLE LOVETT\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Release Me<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[Lost Highway\/Curb]<\/p>\n

Release Me<\/em> marks the end of Lyle Lovett\u2019s career-long run with Curb Records\u2014he first signed with the label in 1985, at age 28. While its hodgepodge of holiday songs, covers, duets, ballads, rockers, swing, bluegrass and even an instrumental initially smacks of randomness, it also points toward the open-minded eclecticism that has sustained Lovett throughout his career. He has never been a conventional country singer, nor has he fit comfortably with his fellow Texan singer-songwriters\u2014weather-beaten troubadours like Guy Clark and the late Townes Van Zandt (even though he\u2019s often recorded their songs). His unpredictability and willingness to extend his reach has kept Lovett\u2019s material fresh, and this new collection works precisely because of its willy-nilly nature.<\/p>\n

The two holiday tracks\u2013the standard \u201cBaby, It\u2019s Cold Outside\u201d (a duet with Austin vocalist Kat Edmonson) and the Lovett original \u201cThe Girl With the Holiday Smile\u201d\u2013were released separately as part of an EP prior to the 2011 holiday season, and their inclusion here is somewhat superfluous. But the album\u2019s other dozen tracks, from the opening fiddle tune \u201cGarfield\u2019s Blackberry Blossom\u201d to the slowed-down, acoustic take on Chuck Berry\u2019s \u201cBrown Eyed Handsome Man\u201d and the soul-rocking closer \u201cIsn\u2019t That So\u201d shape Release Me<\/em> into something of a guided tour of Lovett\u2019s diverse tastes. The title track\u2014a ballad hit for Ray Price, Kitty Wells and crooner Engelbert Humperdinck\u2014is played straight, while the breakneck \u201cWhite Freightliner Blues\u201d and the tender \u201cDress of Laces\u201d (previously cut by Lovett and Nanci Griffith), flesh out the album\u2019s something-for-everyone approach. \u2013Jeff Tamarkin<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LYLE LOVETT\u00a0 Release Me [Lost Highway\/Curb] Release Me marks the end of Lyle Lovett\u2019s career-long run with Curb Records\u2014he first signed with the label in 1985, at age 28. While its hodgepodge of holiday songs, covers, duets, ballads, rockers, swing, bluegrass and even an instrumental initially smacks of randomness, it also points toward the open-minded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[196,3032,3122,3121,3123],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4976"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4980,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976\/revisions\/4980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}