Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt’s music and stories complemented each other perfectly at Macky Auditorium on Thursday. Photos by Nathan Rist.
Turning a 2,000-plus-seat concert hall into the equivalent of a living room is no easy task, but that was certainly the vibe Thursday night when and brought their mutual appreciation show to Boulder’s . In fact, it felt a little like a songwriter’s circle, as Hiatt and Lovett alternated playing songs. While one was playing, the other would listen in rapt enjoyment. Occasionally, the two played together, and they generated surprisingly smooth harmonies together.
Hiatt kicked the night off with excellent fretwork on “Drive South,” which Lovett said he felt was a “great song.” Lovett followed with “L.A. County,” hitting high notes with authority.
The show was part vaudeville comedy, part history lesson, part music. Lovett played the dry, straight man to Hiatt’s more boisterous gags. The two spent almost as much time talking in between songs as playing music during the first half of the show, talking about meeting in Austin for the first time and the early days of playing in Nashville and getting their careers going, or visiting Graceland, which Hiatt joked was “part of his courtship” of his wife. Lovett responded with a quip he attributed to one his band members, asking, “If that guy (Presley) was so great, why is he buried in the backyard like a hamster.”
They also both extensively thanked KBCO and Chuck Morris for supporting them over the years.
Seeing Hiatt and Lovett together also highlights their differing strengths. Lovett is a better singer than Hiatt, able to hit higher notes and sing with a purity that Hiatt’s rasp can’t match. Hiatt is, however, a much better guitarist than Lovett, able to deliver punchy solos that can either wind deep into the blues or become a short musical joke in the middle of a longer, rocking passage.
Many of the classic favorites were showcased, including Hiatt’s “Memphis in the Meantime,” featuring an extended Hiatt solo, and a brilliant “Tennessee Plates,” while Lovett delivered a humorous “Fiona,” with Hiatt adding buttery high harmonies on the final chorus, and a rousing “Up in Indiana,” which Hiatt soloed over.
Lovett has a new album coming out this month, and the title track, “Natural Forces,” which he played late in the set, showed why he is such an amazing songwriter. It might be Lovett’s best song, and he said the track was inspired by seeing a beer commercial during a football game, followed by an ad for the local news. Over a simple blues line, Lovett contrasts someone “safe at home, with a cold Coors Light and the TV on,” with the people fighting overseas, concluding “Lord I pray that I’m worth fighting for.”
After finishing the set with “Ain’t No More Cane,” the two returned for an encore. Hiatt played a passionate “Have a Little Faith in Me,” and Lovett followed with crowd favorite “If I Had a Boat.”
Seeing these two performers stripped down to acoustic guitar, sans their normal large backing bands, gives you a new appreciation for their talent.
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Candace Horgan is a Denver freelance writer/photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. When not writing and shooting, she plays guitar and violin in Denver band the defCATS.
is a freelance photographer and a regular Reverb contributor. He hails from the mountains of Telluride, but he’s currently studying at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
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