AY WEDNESD

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band make stop at Tivoli.

Thirty years. That’s how long Lyle Lovett has been kinda sorta flying under the radar of mainstream country stardom.

Releasing hi s f irst album in 1986, he was part of the newcomer blast that launched such artists as Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Lucinda Williams, Foster and Lloyd, k.d. lang and Mary Chapin Carpenter into the somewhat-complacent country music industry.

Although he had five Top 20 country hi t s between 1987 and 1988, he hasn’t charted any single since 1997, but nine of his 11 studio albums have cracked the Top 10 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart. And he’s also won four Grammys.

“If my career has sort of been under the radar, in a way that give you lots of flexibility, you know?” he told the Lehigh Valley News in 2012, the year his most- recent album, “Release Me,” came out. “… I’ve been really well supported by my record company creatively, in terms of following my own sort of creative inclinations. And I get to make music the way I like to make music, and I get to play music the way I want to play it. And more than that, you can’t ask for.”

Despite lack of radio play, over his career Lovett has solidified a loyal following who respond to his blend of country blues and traditional country with smidges of gospel, jazz and folk.

“The thing that’s great about it is the doing of it, being able to go out and being able to sing these songs with t his great band,” he told the Times Free Press last year. “It’s not where it’s going to get us; it’s getting to do it.”

But it’s Lovett’s lyrics that get the most attention and the most fan love. Wry tunes such as “If I Had a Boat” (“just me up on my pony on my boat”), “Fiona” (“she’s the one-eyed Fiona”) and “Church” (“to the Lord let praises be, it’s time for dinner now let’s go eat”) stand alongside austere, emotional ballads like “If I Were the Man You Wanted” (“I would not be the man that I am”) and “I Can’t Love You Anymore” (“I don’t love you any less, but I can’t love you anymore”).

“Writing has always been the most difficult part of the whole process for me,” he said in last year’s interview with the TFP. “The continuing challenge to have a good idea is difficult. … I’ve written lots of horrible songs that have never been played.”

While he came to Chattanooga in 2015 with his five-man Acoustic Group, this time he’s bringing his his Large Band, a 14-member group (excluding him) that features a four-piece horn section and his longtime, sassy vocalist Francine Reed.

“What makes me fearless and confident going into a tour, what makes me look forward to just having a good time, are the people I get to stand on the stage with,” Lovett said in a 2014 interview.

“I look forward to every show, no matter if it’s hot outside and if there are mosquitoes swarming around. The band makes me enjoy each show absolutely.”

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO