This Week's Reviews: Lyle Lovett, Ben Harper, Casting Crowns

I'm going to start running my USA Today reviews here each week, a day or so after they run in the paper. They won't always be my favorite albums from the week, or even things I necessarily like a lot; four other critics write reviews for the paper. If you want to see my reviews - along with the reviews from Edna Gundersen, Elysa Gardner, Steve Jones and Ken Barnes - the day they run, check out Ken's Listen Up blog on Tuesdays.

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, It’s Not Big, It’s Large

* * *

Texas-sized Cowboy Jazz

As its title suggests, this isn’t quite a big-band album, though the opening instrumental by Lester Young sure starts it that way. But the always-versatile Lovett couldn’t possibly settle there, and he’s also got country shuffles and tunes of folk-like simplicity, along with songs that extol the joys of a South Texas girl and singing with Joe Ely, John Hiatt and Guy Clark. And, as if his own band weren’t large enough, he fleshes it out with some top-flight hired hands, including Clark, Jerry Douglas and Béla Fleck. — Mansfield

>>Download: South Texas Girl, All Downhill

>>Skip: The Alley Song

Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals, Lifeline

* * 1/2

Surfer Soul

Harper recorded his latest album in Paris. But with a band sharpened by nine months of steady touring, its spiritual location is 1320 South Lauderdale, the Memphis address of Hi Records, where Al Green and Otis Clay recorded their gospel-infused soul hits in the early ’70s. Lyrics such as “You can’t just say ‘I love you,’ you’ve got to live ‘I love you’ ” show that Harper may share Green’s heart and soul, but he doesn’t have his voice. Harper is always more expressive as a guitarist than as a singer, and it takes the occasionally electrifying slide solos or gorgeous instrumental to rescue this set.

>>Download: Fight Outta You, Paris Sunrise #7

>>Skip: Needed You Tonight

Casting Crowns, The Altar and the Door

* * 1/2

Sunday Rock for Monday Mornings

On this church-focused collection, these platinum-selling Christian rockers concern themselves with the space between the title’s two fixtures — that is, between intention and action, between doing good and getting in the way, or, as one song puts it, between “the God we want and the God who is.” That’s a space worth exploring, and the band’s motives may be the best, but their anthems are as predictable as a televangelist’s tears: start soft, build big, then cue the strings.

>>Download: Somewhere in the Middle, title track

>>Skip: I Know You’re There

Butterflies, Turtles and the Closing of the Weekly World News

On his Listen Up blog, Ken Barnes recently linked to a Washington Post article about the demise of the Weekly World News. That tremendously entertaining story revealed that Bob Lind, the '60s pop artist who had the 1966 hit "Elusive Butterfly," had spent a decade writing for the tabloid. Ken wondered what other hit-making musicians had life stories that took them far afield from their most famous incarnation.

I told Ken I'd see his Bob Lind and raise him a Tupper Saussy. Saussy, a Florida-born private-school teacher, ad exec, jazz pianist and songwriter, recorded three albums for Monument Records (jazz great Dave Brubeck wrote liner notes for one) before he and Don Gant hooked up in Nashville to form the Neon Philharmonic, and record the 1969 Top 20 pop hit “Morning Girl.”

Years later, Saussy ghostwrote the autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray. He also decided to quit paying his taxes, then lived underground under an assumed name for 10 years before the feds found him and sent him to prison for 14 months, during which time he worked on his conspiracy-rich book Rulers of Evil: Useful Knowledge About Governing Bodies, in which he wrote, “[T]he papacy really does run United States foreign policy, and always has.”

Later, he returned to Nashville, where he sold watercolors in a local art gallery and ran a blog called "Honest Things." He eventually recorded a new album, "The Chocolate Orchid Piano Bar," but died earlier this year shortly before its release.

Then I noticed something germane from the trade publication Music Row:

"Belmont University has hired Mark Volman, a founding member and lead singer of The Turtles (“Happy Together”) and Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, as Program Coordinator of Entertainment Industry Studies. Teaching at the college as an adjunct professor since 2004, he is also named an assistant professor in Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business. He taught at his alma mater, Los Angeles’s Loyola Marymount University, from 1997 to 2003 and eventually moved to Belmont. After starting college at age 44, Volman completed an MFA in Screenwriting, graduated Magna Cum Laude, and was Valedictorian of his undergraduate class."

Not as odd as Bob Lind, but still interesting.

Also, I've heard stories about an engineer of many Elvis Presley records who got burned out and wound up working as a butcher in a Nashville-area grocery store. And Darlene Love starts her autobiography about her time, post-Crystals but before Lethal Weapon, working as a maid. She always had to park her old Mercedes off-site because she knew driving it to the house she was working would raise questions, and once she heard "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" playing down the hall of a house she was cleaning.

If you're having problems remembering "Elusive Butterfly," let this help.



Here's one for "Morning Girl." The video's not much, but it gives you the song.



And, finally, a clip of the Turtles doing "Happy Together" on the Smothers Brothers show in February 1967.

Lori McKenna's 'Unglamorous'

Finally, I get to profile singer-songwriter Lori McKenna in today’s USA Today. I say “finally” because I’d wanted to do a piece on the Stoughton, Mass., native back in 2005, after Faith Hill delayed her Fireflies album so she could put three of Lori’s songs – including “Fireflies” and “Stealing Kisses” – on it. Lori’s a mother of five (kids range in age from 3 to 18) married to a plumber, and until those royalty checks started rolling in, all seven of them lived in a 1,500-square-foot house that Lori and her husband, Gene, had bought when they were 19.

Lori would play out several nights a month, rarely venturing farther than she could drive overnight, since it was always important to be home by the time the kids woke up. “I’ve even driven home from Philly,” she says, “which is really dumb, but you get home in six hours when you have to.”

With a story like that – and with songs as good as hers (I can’t stress enough that you pick up her other albums once you have the new one, Unglamorous) – I really wanted to talk to her. For some reason, though, the publicist at Warner Bros., which had re-released her old albums, dragged her heels on putting us together. In retrospect, I suspect the folks at Oprah had insisted on some sort of exclusivity, since Lori and Faith showed up there not long after I started asking for an interview.

Anyway, I got to interview her over coffee recently at Fido in Nashville, and we hit it off immediately, not only because we both had driven Ford Windstars with 150,000 miles on them (though Lori has traded hers in for a Toyota Sienna), but because four of my kids are the same ages as four of her kids. And that’s really something, considering how they’re spaced – 15, 13, 5 and 3. As Lori said, “That’s so weird, because there’s that gap.” Lori says she gets the strangest questions about that gap. I know what she means: The most common one I get, if my wife’s not around, is “Are they all with the same wife?” (Yes, they are, thank you very much.)

So, anyway, enjoy the story. If you do, be sure to click the “recommended” button on the USA Today page. And leave a comment, too - here or there. That'd be great.

Oh, and did I say that Unglamorous is one of my favorite albums so far this year? 'Cause I should have.

Elvis and Me

I don't often get my byline on the front page of USA Today, but it's there today, with fellow reporter Marco R. della Cava, above a story about Elvis Presley in the 30 years since his death. (If Karl Rove hadn't quit, we'd have been above the fold.) Marco and I (well, mainly Marco, to be honest) look at how the Elvis legacy has changed over 30 years and what's in store (like a Cirque du Soleil production). One of my favorite parts is a sidebar on babies named Elvis. In 1935, there were 49 baby boys born in the United States named "Elvis." One of those, of course, was Elvis Aaron Presley. The named dropped off the Social Security Administration's list of top 1000 baby names in 1948, but it came roaring back in 1956, with 416 baby Elvises (Elvii?). The best year for little Elvises was 1957, with 595 of them (that's the year of "Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear," btw), and there was another spike following his death (364 in 1978). There was a similar spike for some reason in 1999 (360) and last year, there were 272 baby Elvis in the U.S. However, there were 935 girls named Presley - a naming trend that's been on the rise since making its first Top 1000 appearance in 1998.

My favorite quote that didn't make the story came from author Alanna Nash, who wrote the fantastic book The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. She said: "[Robert F.X.] Sillerman [the majority owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises (and American Idol, for that matter)] is the new Tom Parker - he just has better taste."

Also, it's worth nothing that the most popular Elvis download isn't even an original recordings - it's Junkie XL's 2002 remix of "A Little Less Conversation." And if you're in the mood for having your Elvis filtered through more modern tastes, check out Ickmusic's collection of Elvis cover videos.

Nashville Cat-ty

The following email is making the rounds of Music City inboxes today. Any misspellings are the author's, not mine.

Why do I laugh every time I see Scott Borchetta's license plate?? Huh, DOMIN8R??
What in the hell is up with his hair? Halloween is the only day that the male perm should be pulled off.
How long are we going to hear that "The Storm is Coming!" before Category 5 records actually sells an album??
Why doesn't Universal South just shut the doors already? This is getting embarrassing.
Is it possible for one person to embarrass an entire industry?? Mindy will surely find out.
I saw Wynonna's husband in the mall the other day. I held my daughter tightly.
I believe that there are more Canadians in Nashville than Canada.
I heard that Kenny fell out of a chair at Southstreet a few weeks ago. He was trying to climb down.
Does Tracy L. even need to open his mouth when he sings?
Has Keith U. had the same song out for 18 months, or does it just seem like it...
Is Joe Nichols solely responsible for the spice in suicides?
Has he sold a record yet?
I heard they brought in a real live goat to hit some of the higher notes on Toby's last CD.
They may have to change Gary LeVox's hairstyle soon. His hairdresser can no longer get in close enough to style it.
When is Jennifer Nettles going to fire that guy that's in all her videos? Oh...he's part of Sugarland?!?!
Congrats to B&R for finally getting their first #1. Their flash in the pan is almost over.
Saw Ty Herndon at the YMCA in Green Hills last week. In the locker room. Define scared.

Brad Paisley in USA Today

Two weeks ago, I flew with Brad Paisley to a show at the Delaware State Fair. On the way there, we talked about the way he uses video in his current show. He does a lot of the video work himself, including the animation that goes along with his instrumental "Throttleneck." Brad's also been doing the video editing for an upcoming special on the making of his "Online" video for GAC. Now, I've spent some time in video-editing suites, and watching somebody edit video ... well, it's about like watching somebody play computer solitaire for hours on end. But Brad seems to love it, and it gives him something to do while traveling between tour stops. "It's one of those things that keeps you sane, keeps you from doing drugs," he says. I've got two stories on Brad in USA Today - one that talks about his interest in video and one that gives away his trade secrets.

Sugarland's "Irreplaceable"

Sugarland has been performing Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable" on tour this year. Let's go to the video: