POP MUSIC REVIEW : Hair-Raising Country Sounds

It’s easy to talk about Lyle Lovett’s talent.

The Texan’s country-accented but universally framed music combines the bittersweet irony of Hank Williams, the wicked satire of Randy Newman and the individualistic impulses of Tom Waits.

But how do you begin to describe his “Eraserhead”-inspired hair style?

Who would have figured that the most imaginative new songwriter since Kris Kristofferson in the macho world of country music would be a man whose hair rises 3 inches higher than Dolly Parton’s?

Several people Tuesday at the sold-out, 900-seat Ventura Theatre were apparently seeing Lovett for the first time, and they appeared intrigued by that marvel of human sculpture. Some pointed or giggled as the slender Texan stepped to the microphone.

In an odd but fitting way, however, Lovett’s extreme hair style underscores the absurdities that he sees in human relationships. The good, bad and ugly of love is the foundation of all pop music-- especially country music, where pledges of devotion are outnumbered only by cheatin’ songs.

In his best tunes, Lovett--who will be at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim tonight and at the Wadsworth Theatre in Westwood on Friday--both parodies country music and expands its horizons.

At one point Tuesday, he said, “Here’s a typical country song: Boy meets girl, boy murders girl.”

If only one of his characters actually carries matters that far, Lovett does deal invariably in intense emotions. He understands how the desperation of closing time makes anyone seem attractive because loneliness in such moments is almost as empty as death itself. The songs speak of deep sadness and bitter memories, but also immense longing and cautious joy.

Backed on the tour by an eight-piece band that moves between straightforward country and brassy, blues-tinged arrangements, Lovett has fun with stereotypical complaints about domineering mates. In “She’s no Lady,” he sings:

The preacher asked her,

And she said “I do”

The preacher asked me

And she said, “Yes, he does too.”

He also sees the sadness and whimsy in the way people, eager for love, grapple with exaggerated hopes and false fronts. In “Cowboy Man,” the woman wears glass slippers and the man boasts of a 40-gallon hat.

But Lovett can also be as stinging as Dylan when he feels betrayed. About a woman who seems a bit too indiscriminate, he snaps, “You spend the night / Like you were spending a dime.”

Beneath the humor and bite, however, there is a compassion in Lovett’s work--an understanding of and tolerance for the fundamental needs that make relationships so essential and so delicate.

In just three albums, Lovett has already given us a career’s worth of quality material--songs so insightful and fresh that they make the world of romance seem suddenly like his own, untapped territory.

If he is a man with talent to burn, however, Lovett didn’t always use it to best advantage Tuesday. Like Waits, Lovett (who shares the bill on this tour with veteran singer-guitarist Leo Kottke) appears bored with what’s too easy. So after coming close to mastering the country-music approach, he is experimenting with the friskier, blues-tinged big band styles.

This move works fine on his recent “Lyle Lovett and His Large Band” album because the emphasis remains on the songs. Lovett isn’t a classic country singer in the gruff, character-rich style of a Merle Haggard or a Randy Travis, but he sings with an actor’s nuance and punctuation, giving the songs an extra ring of whimsy and bite.

At times at the Ventura, however, Lovett sometimes let his role as bandleader interfere with the momentum of his singer-songwriter focus as he stepped aside for extended solos, and once walked off stage to allow the band and backup singer Francine Reed to take over.

This may give the evening more variety, but it’s not what makes Lovett so special.