(Lost Highway/Curb) My Baby Don't Tolerate marks Lyle Lovett's long awaited return after a seven year absence with his first disc of new material since 1996's acclaimed The Road To Ensenada. Lyle's long been known as an artist who makes his own often quirky brand of uncompromising music, expertly blending the traditional country, blues and gospel music of his Texas roots, with jazz and occasional touches of folk and pop. His lyrically smart songwriting often incorporates touches of irony, biting sarcasm and clever wit mixed with a smirking dry sense of humor. The Road To Ensenada found Lyle delving deeper into his country roots, resulting in one of his most straightforward country releases.

On My Baby Don't Tolerate, Lyle continues where The Road To Ensenada left off, and is even a more country-centric, musically lighter release where steel and fiddle abound, making it perhaps his most commercially accessible album to date. While the disc is being heralded as 'all new' material, two of the tracks, the fun, goodtime western swing tunes "The Truck Song" and "San Antonio Girl," are actually re-recordings of two songs previously released on Anthology Vol.1: Cowboy Man, neither of which have been changed much from their original versions. "Cute As A Bug" at face value, sounds like a lightweight country-pop confection, but between Lyle's vocal delivery and it's infectious melody, after a few listens this one really sneaks up on you and eventually you're gonna inevitably find yourself either consciously or unconsciously bopping along to it. "Wellisville Road" is a rockin' honky tonker, while he takes a classically traditional approach on the shuffling "On Saturday Night." The outstanding "In My Own Mind" with it's gently laid back, swaying melody tells of a man's way of escaping the never ending demands of daily life, and the life of a rodeo cowboy is told in the mid-tempo "Nothing But a Good Ride." "Big Dog" provides some down and dirty bluesy roadhouse honky tonk, while the title track, "My Baby Don't Tolerate" is a snaky, smoky blues number. Lyle provides a touch of his trademark introspection on the haunting and elegantly jazzy ballad "You Were Always There" and the soulfully gritty "Working Too Hard." The lone cover on the disc is an effective working of Blaze Foley's dark tale of the old time south, "Election Day," done up in an old time jazzy-blues style. Lyle closes out the disc with two raucous, choir backed gospel numbers "I'm Going To Wait" and "I'm Going To The Place," the former being about sticking around in this world a little longer and the latter about being ready to go to a better one.

On My Baby Don't Tolerate, Lyle doesn't break any new musical ground and it might, at first, sound like an anti-climatic effort after the outstanding The Road To Ensenada. Even most of his quirks and eccentricities are toned down, making My Baby Don't Tolerate a pretty straightforward effort. However, that's far from a bad thing as both as a collection and individually, the songs stand up just fine on their own. The more direct and simple approach also has it's charm and appeal- an album of good, well written songs, and nobody fuses together the sounds of country, blues, jazz/bigband, folk and pop any better than Lyle Lovett.                

Standout Tracks:  "My Baby Don't Tolerate," "In My Own Mind," "Nothing But A Good Ride," "You Were Always There," "On A Saturday Night," "Election Day"

Last Word:  Lyle delivers a solid, though not groundbreaking, album that's a worthy follow up to his previous country effort Ensenada. Filled with catchy melodies, well written lyrics, lots of fiddle and steel and Lyle's one-of-a-kind vocal delivery, it's very hard to find anything here not to like.

On The Net: Unofficial Website:  www.lylelovett.net

AnnMarie Harrington TakeCountryBack November 2003