Friday, July 4, 2008

Lyle Lovett's Large Band was both super-sized and customized at Wolf Trap on Wednesday night, during a richly textured and often wonderfully vibrant 2 1/2 -hour performance.

The Texas singer-songwriter's core ensemble -- 13 members strong -- was occasionally augmented by Junior Fountain and God's Generation, a gospel choir that early on helped elevate "I Will Rise Up" to a heavenly plane. Then, midway through the show, after Lovett pared his group to the string band essentials, Dobro player and Seldom Scene co-founder Mike Auldridge made a surprise appearance. While Lovett referred to bluegrass as "country music's dark side," among the tunes nimbly accented by Auldridge was the amusing, double entendre-paced novelty "Keep It in Your Pantry."

Singer Francine Reed, a longtime Lovett tour mate, was missing from the lineup, but vocalists Willie Green Jr., Harry Bowens and Sweet Pea Atkinson were there in typically stylish form, contributing waves of resonating harmonies and some hipster choreography. Then again, Lovett never lacked for colorful support. Cellist John Hagen, pedal steel guitarist Buck Reid, fiddler Gene Elders, mandolinist Keith Sewell, pianist Jim Cox and guitarists Ray Herndon and Mitch Watkins, among others, saw to that.

If anything, Lovett's innately melancholic voice grew stronger during the evening. Still, the reflective ballads "This Old Porch" and "If I Had a Boat" ranked among the show's highlights, right up there with the full-tilt western swing anthems and the gospel-charged renderings of "Ain't No Cane" and "I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord."

-- Mike Joyce