Lyle Lovett 054

Look closer for seven song titles: Make It Happy; If I Had A Boat; Bears; That’s Right; All Downhill; I Will Rise Up; South Texas Girl

Lyle Pearce Lovett was born on November 1, 1957 in Houston, Texas. He is an American singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. Active since 1980, he has recorded 13 albums and released 25 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, “Cowboy Man”. The album, It’s Not Big It’s Large was released in 2007, where it peaked at number 2 on the Top Country Albums chart. 

Lovett began his music career as a songwriter. Signing with MCA Records in 1986, he released his eponymous debut album. While associated with the country genre, Lovett’s compositions incorporate folk, swing, blues, jazz and gospel music as well as country & western styling. He’s won four Grammy Awards, including Best Country Album (1996 for The Road to Ensenada), Best Country Duo/Group with Vocal (1994 for “Blues For Dixie” with the Texas swing group Asleep at the Wheel), Best Pop Vocal Collaboration (1994 for “Funny How Time Slips Away” with Al Green) and Best Country Male Vocal (1989 for Lyle Lovett and His Large Band). In 1995, Lovett performed a duet of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” with Randy Newman for Toy Story. 

Lovett acted in a number of films, notably for director Robert Altman: The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), and Cookie’s Fortune (1999). He composed the score for the director’s Dr. T & the Women (2000). His other film roles include Bastard Out Of Carolina (1996), The New Guy (2002), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), and a humorous role in Angels Sing, a family Christmas movie (alongside Harry Connick, Jr., Connie Britton, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson). 

Mary Chapin Carpenter’s 1992 song “I Feel Lucky” refers to Lovett, as does Bloodhound Gang’s 1999 song “The Bad Touch”, which includes the lyric, “and you’ll Lovett just like Lyle. “In 2011, Lovett was named Texas State Artist Musician by the Texas Commission on the Arts. On October 24, 2019, Lovett was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame.

It’s Not Big It’s Large is an album by Lyle Lovett and his Large Band, released in 2007. The recording was made live in studio. The title is a play on the name Lovett has given to his touring band since 1988. Lovett explains the title in an interview: “We’ve always done arrangements that border on blues music, that border on jazz arrangements, that border on what folks might think of as ‘big band’, but we don’t really play big band music. But we’ve always had a lot of people in the band so that’s why I call the band the ‘Large Band’ and not the ‘Big Band’. But invariably people refer to the band as the ‘Big Band’ and … it’s not big… you get the idea.”

Personal Life

Lovett married actress Julia Roberts after meeting her on the set of The Player. Following a three-week romance, they eloped and married in June 1993 in Marion, Indiana. In March 1995, they divorced. People magazine reported that the breakup was caused by career demands. They remain friends. Since late 1997, Lovett has been in a relationship with April Kimble. They became engaged in 2003. They were married on February 4, 2017, in Harris County, Texas.

On March 28, 2002, Lovett was trapped by a bull against a fence on his uncle’s farm in Klein, Texas. Eventually he was pulled to safety. He fully recovered after six months from a badly broken leg, and he began touring again in summer 2003.

Lovett was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Houston, his mom’s alma matre (BA 1960), on May 15, 2010. His mom was in the audience at the general commencement ceremony. His father was also a graduate of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture of the University of Houston. In 2015, Lovett received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Texas A&M University. Lovett is also a horse enthusiast and co-owns and competes in reining competitions with world class Quarter Horse, Smart and Shiney. In 2012, Lovett was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. In 2018, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in the National Reining Horse Association Hall of Fame.                

-credit Wikipedia

The artwork: 

The first print of this illustration is available for donation to non-profit silent auction – email lisafromlsu@gmail.com for details.

Digital Print on Archival Matte – Original illustration done in graphite and the following Prisma Colors: Pale Sage 1089 because Sage stands for wisdom, the wisdom of a career well done and a life well lived; Sunburst Yellow for the lyric, “. . . the sun shining again.” In Don’t Cry A Tear; Slate Grey 936 for the lyric, “you can’t make a grey cat brown.” in No Big Deal; Indigo Blue for the album, “Blues for Dixie.”

Artist: Tobin Bortner of Bastrop, Texas – drawing done in February of 2022 – ©Tobin Signs/Look Closer Illustrations 
DERIVATIVE Work – photo sources: young face from “musicianbio_org – 0000174122_Lyle_Lovett_4”; Guitar from “Wikiwand – Lyle_Lovett_at_Oregon_Zoo”; small face from GQ – lyle-lovett-country-gq-style-18

What you get:
40 (36.95 plus 3.05 tax)
11 x 14 Print Package with Authenticity Sheet
signed and numbered (run of 80)
Domestic Priority Mail $8 (Free shipping)