1985

LYLE LOVETT

I first saw Lyle Lovett singing backgrounds with Nanci Griffith on the Nashville network TNN. Nanci was a very respected folk singer-songwriter who I would go on to sign to MCA Nashville. Lyle was a very “high profile” young man in a very nice suit and Lucchese boots with the highest and coolest hair I’d ever seen. When a great songwriter, Guy Clark, heard me asking about Lyle, he gave me a cassette to listen to with some of Lyle’s demos. They were so incredible in every way. The songs, the lyrics, and the arrangements were all perfectly presented on this cassette.

I signed Lyle to MCA Curb Records, and after his demos had been heard by every famous producer in Nashville, I was the one who suggested that we should just remix the demos and make them a finished album. He agreed.

Lyle’s first album, Lyle Lovett, would be a commercial success and a critics’ favorite. Using the same way of recording, I produced two more albums with him: Pontiac and Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, which sold gold and won Lyle a Grammy for Best Male Country Performance in 1990. Lyle continues to play with his Large Band and is still a high-styled Texas gentleman to say the least. He is one of my favorite and dearest friends to this day.

“Tony Brown was willing to take a chance on me in 1985 when he signed me to MCA Records Nashville. I’ll always be grateful to him for that.”

Lyle Lovett

Lyle with James House, me, Marty Stuart, and Vince Gill during CMA week in (1986).

LYLE IS DEFINITELY A QUIRKY ORIGINAL, FROM HIS HAIR DOWN TO HIS BOOTS.

Robert Earl Keen, Sam Bush, Guy Clark, Lyle, me, and Jon Randall at the ASCAP Icon Awards.