Step Inside This House

Two CD set in a 'fat' double jewelbox. Thick booklet with lyrics and photos.

Lovett puts down his pen and applauds the work of fellow Texas songsmiths on this inviting dissection of his musical influences. Buttressed by the fluid work of acoustic pickers such as Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush, Lovett attaches his uptown drawl to the works of writers including Robert Earl Keen, Guy Clark, and Michael Martin Murphy as well as to a pair of Lone Star traditionals. Disc 2 is dedicated to two of Lovett's biggest mentors, Walter Hyatt and Townes Van Zandt. --Marc Greilsamer

The most mercurial of Texas singer/songwriters, Lyle Lovett has assembled a two-disc homage to mentors and fellow travelers--a homecoming of mixed emotions and uneven meditations on Texas land and soul. The first disc is the most spacious--including songs by Vince Bell, Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, and Michael Martin Murphy--while the second concentrates on Walter Hyatt and Townes Van Zandt (who died in 1996 and 1997 respectively). The meticulous and mostly acoustic layering of dobro, steel guitar, and piano sonically celebrates Lovett's Lone Star roots; his band even jaunts into western swing on Walter Hyatt's "Teach Me About Love." And Lovett's voice sounds warmly weathered with the respect and affection he has for the material. But the material is perplexing. Eric Taylor's "Memphis Midnight/Memphis Morning" never drives home its lonely impressions; selections from David Rodriguez and Willis Allen Ramsey never draw from the depth of those writers' imaginations (at least "Sleepwalking" is a rarity in Ramsey's small but legendary catalogue); and Steve Fromholz's "Texas Trilogy" never transcends aimless local color. But the two traditional pieces, "More Pretty Girls Than One" and "Texas River Song," number among the album's finest surprises. A similar grace and clarity animates both the title track--one of Guy Clark's most lambent but unrecorded compositions--and two of Van Zandt's greatest mysteries: "Highway Kind" and "Flying Shoes." --Roy Francis Kasten