Off Limits: Lyle Lovett Running Time Code Video Description Narration 00:02 Various city/band setup Shots Lovett OC Shots of band practice Sam OC Lyle OC Cold Open: Sound Up: Lyle Lovett: “Tomorrow will be 47 shows in 54 days… In a way it’s sort of like getting to go to musician fantasy camp.” Sam Bush: ”I’ve never been in an ensemble this big since I was in high school band.” (music up) Lyle Lovett: “They’re doing what they’re doing to bring my songs to life. That’s a great feeling.” 00:31 OFF LIMITS Packaged Opening 00:53 Shots of audience and band onstage Key: Lyle Lovett and his Large Band / Bass Performance Hall / Fort Worth, Texas, USA Sound Up: Audience claps. Lyle takes stage and starts to perform. 01:20 Band singing around microphone VO 1.1: Narrator: Rarely does a
Transcript
Off Limits:Lyle Lovett
Running Time Code
Video Description Narration
00:02 Various city/band setup Shots
Lovett OC
Shots of band practice
Sam OC
Lyle OC
Cold Open:Sound Up:
Lyle Lovett: “Tomorrow will be 47 shows in 54 days… In a way it’s sort of like getting to go to musician fantasy camp.”
Sam Bush: ”I’ve never been in an ensemble this big since I was in high school band.” (music up)
Lyle Lovett: “They’re doing what they’re doing to bring my songs to life. That’s a great feeling.”
00:31 OFF LIMITS Packaged Opening
00:53 Shots of audience and band onstage Key: Lyle Lovett and his Large Band / Bass Performance Hall / Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Sound Up: Audience claps. Lyle takes stage and starts to perform.
01:20 Band singing around microphone
VO 1.1:Narrator: Rarely does a singer/songwriter as unique as Lyle Lovett come along. The four-time Grammy Award winner has been a fixture on the popular music scene since his first self-titled album, “Lyle Lovett” was released in 1986. With a career spanning 3 decades and 13 albums, his distinctive sound has been described as a blend of folk, swing, country, blues, jazz and gospel. It’s this style of eclectic genre-blending that has won the hearts of legions of loyal music fans worldwide. Much Lyle Lovett’s success can be attributed to his dedication to reach out to his fans through live performances. He is
on the road each and every year, for several months at a time. Touring with his Large Band of 15 musicians is the only way to re-create the textured sound achieved in the recording studio. Lyle Lovett’s singular style of down-home simplicity, mixed with the clever complexity of his lyrics, and presented with the support of some of this century’s most talented musicians, makes each show appear easy. What fans will never see is that delivering Lovett’s distinctive music for a live audience in a different venue every night is an art in it itself.
Sound Up: Stagehands grunt while lifting a grand piano
02:37 Stagehands loading equipment onto the truck
Band singing around microphone.
VO 1.2 Narrator: Where the art is most visible is on stage. There, Lyle Lovett surrounds himself with some of the best talent Austin, Nashville and Los Angeles has to offer. Gifted artists who help bring his music from the page to the stage. “The Large Band’s ”15 members are as diverse as the recording artists catalogue of songs.Russ Kunkel is one of the most sought after drummers in American music history. His beats have graced 30 years of classic recordings for the likes of James Taylor, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne amongst countless others.
03:12 Russ OC in suit and tie
Russ OC with drum kit Key: Russ Kunkel / Drums
Russ: “One of the things that’s great about Lyle as a band leader is that the musicians that he picks to be in his band are exemplary.Russ: I mean, every single seat – every player is really, really great. That’s the main – with the exception of Lyle, it’s the main reason I like to come our here and do this – because I’m on stage with really, really great players.”
Sound Up: (Tuning guitars)
03:373 Strings on stage preparing
VO 1.3:Narrator: Sam Bush has been dubbed the “King of Newgrass”. He is one of North America’s premier Mandolin players and his lightning fast solos add a distinctive bluegrass texture to Lyle Lovett’s music.
03:50 Sam and fiddle player OC
Key: Sam Bush / MandolinSam speaking OC
Sam playing
Sam: “I get to be the occasional visitor in the Lyle Lovett Band and um, it’s a great situation because I’ve known Lyle since the 80’sSam: when he and John Hagen and James Gilmer opened a few shows for the band I was in called “New Grass Revival. You know, immediately, we knew that there was something special about this guy, and he wasn’t just another singer/songwriter. And it was, you know, the most unique songs you’d ever heard, great singer, fine guitar player.”
04:16 Man Tying Tie VO 1.4:Narrator: One of the youngest on tour with Lyle Lovett, Viktor Krauss, has played bass with a who’s who of contemporary musicians. The list includes Elvis Costello, Carly Simon, and John Fogerty. Rounding out the ‘super group’ is James Gilmer on percussion and John Hagen on cello, old friends who have been performing with Lyle since his humble beginnings back in the early 1980’s. They wear his music catalogue like a favorite pair of jeans.
04:44 CU Drum kit and brush
James OC
James: “Lyle and I have been, we were friends before we started working together, and you know, I think we’ll always be friends. But you know, James: to stand up with these musicians I
Key: James Gilmer / Percussion / Road Manager
CU Guitar
mean Victor Krause on base and Sam Bush is here on Mandolin. Mitch Watkins and Ray Herndon on guitars. John Hagen who plays cello who’s been with us forever – and then to stand next to Russ Kunkel every night, you know, I mean, that’s. That’s great.”
05:11 Drum Kit VO 1.5:Narrator: Moving that greatness from town to town during a live tour takes an entirely different set of talents, but requires the same strict attention to timing and detail.
5:20 (Visual: Flash to white)
Key: Lyle Lovett / Singer / Songwriter
On the RoadLyle OC
Lyle: “this is our 53rd day and our 46th show.
Lyle: Tomorrow will be 47 shows in 54 days, and it’s a rigorous schedule but it’s kind of what we have to do when we take out the large band just because there are so many of us. There are 30 of us in the band and crew all together, counting our drivers. And you know, we carry 3 busses – 3 coaches for the band and the crew and 2 semi-trucks for the equipment, sound, lights and all the gear. And uh our drivers are great our crew is great. Those guys work so hard. They are the first guys there, everyday. You know, they sleep on the bus. They roll overnight, no matter how close or how far the next show is. They wake up in the parking lot of the venue that we’re playing on a given day, and they get off the bus, and they go right to work, they start unloading the trucks with the help of the local stagehands that are hired for the day.”
06:27 Stage hands taking equipment to stage
Jack OCKey: Jack Albeck /
Sound Up: Jack Albeck: “I’m gonna throw our cable pick on that same beam for the front truss, and I’ll go in front of you and
Jack: a cable will be breasted back to the proscenium with the sheave up top… I said
Lighting Director / Production Manager
Jack directing stagehands at night
breast. (smiles)”
Jack: “The key is keeping track of the hands in the beginning – allocating them to the departments so they all have tasks to do, otherwise if we don’t get the tasks started, people tend to wander off without direction, and you lose control of the entire day. So as long as you keep it started the right way, it’ll finish the right way.”
07:05 Equipment being moved to dark stage
VO 1.6:Narrator: A tour this size requires staggering-logistics: three busses for the musicians and crew, and two tractor-trailers devoted to their gear. Moving this many people on a grueling schedule of back-to-back dates can only be accomplished by a life lived largely on the road. While the team of technicians begins setting up for tonight’s show, Lyle relaxes on his own bus, recovering from yet another overnight ride.
07:33 Key: Lyle Lovett’s Tour Bus / 10:30am / 9 hours to showtime
Pan to Lyle on Bus. Lyle OC
Lyle Driving
Lyle OC
Sound Up: Lyle: “Well, y’all come on in. These coaches are, we lease these coaches through a company in Nashville, and you know they set ‘em up, they always give us really nice, new equipment. And, we sleep back here.”
Lyle: “When we’re playing 6 nights a week, I do try to sleep. I try to sleep as long as I can, which is not always a long time, but I do try to – it just helps with the physical nature of singing.”Sound Up: Lyle: “With 8 of us on the bus, we use the bottom 2 tiers for sleeping, and then the top tiers we use for storage. (Camera shows it) The junk bunk is how they refer to it. We sleep here. I sleep down here (Camera shows it) sometimes. I have a - my guitar is sleeping in here right now. That’s about it.”Lyle: “It’s not quite the same as when
you’re sleeping and not moving, but it has a kind of an active effect on your dreams - it does for me, I mean you can dream some crazy stuff when you’re rolling down the road, so that’s kind of interesting. We had one week where every night we had 500 plus. 6 nights in a row we had a 500 plus mile drive, so every night sleeping on the bus, and you can - at the end of the week you can sort of feel that. I mean it’s nice when you can get to spend a night in a hotel or a night or 2.”
Jack: “This is very standard. A front truss and a back truss. There’s about 144 lights. So it’s a nice size. With a 16-piece band this time, it’s just about the right number.”
09:45
10:01
Brian walking away from camera
Key: Bryan Gilbert / Lighting Technician
Truss in lower right, Brain center left.
Sound Up: Brian Gilbert: “This is what happens when we get in a hurry. We just have to fix this can here. We’ll fix that up. It’ll just take a couple of minutes to do.”
Brian: “It’s pretty easy, you just bolt it up and hang it and run the cable, you know, run it to the dimmer, check it, let Jack touch it. After he does a pre-focus we raise it up in the air and do an actual real focus, when everything’s down on the ground. Dewey makes sure our console’s working because every night, you know something could happen in the truck. It could get beat up, you could knock a chip out of it. It’s real bad when the roads are real bad, and if the console’s in the wrong place in the truck it sort of jumps around it can bounce around, then the next day you get it going with the console, you open it up and reset chips and you know, do maintenance on it.”
10:47 John OC, directing stagehand Sound Up: John Richards: “This one will go right around the truss in the back. Someone will tell ya – same thing. This one will go downstage by the handle you see right there.“
10:57 John walking left to stagehand
Lyle OC driving
Lyle: “John Richards, who I met in 1988 and who I’ve been working with ever since – I haven’t gone on tour without John Richards since 1988. He’s just, he’s such a smart and hard working guy I mean, he just rolls up his sleeves and does whatever needs to be done – and he always puts a great crew together for us. He’s just the heart and soul of the crew.
11:25 WS of Auditorium with working stagehands in foreground. Key: John Richards / Front of House Sound Engineer
John: “We’re waiting – we have to get the lighting truss out of the way before we can fly the PA. It’s in front of the PA. Also we have to wait on the riggers to get all the steel up. This guy; see if you can get a picture of this guy. There’s a guy in the hole up there. He’s gonna take, that’s called basket right there those 2 pieces of steel. He’s gonna take that basket up and tie it around the steel that’s in the ceiling. What’s gonna happen: It’s gonna end up on 2 pieces of steel like this (uses hands), so the point ends up hanging in the middle. You know, some days you come in and you go “well I want the point here” and they say “well it can’t be here because there’s not a hole in the ceiling or the weight won’t hold it up here so we kind of have to go, where the weight – the PA weighs about 2000 pounds, so we have to go in the ceiling where it’ll hold that much weight up. We work at the rigger’s pace because it’s really dangerous, really dangerous stuff. If they fall they fall right? Dangerous work. That’s why they get the big bucks.”
12:22City Shots Beauty shot of concert poster
VO 2.1:
Narrator: Tonight’s show in Fort Worth, Texas, will be a special one for Lyle Lovett. A proud Texan, he knows the fans
will expect a great show. And there will be the added pleasure of entertaining his family and friends who will be joining the audience. Since the tour is near it’s end and tonight’s show is sold out, the usual local media circus won’t be present for pre-show interviews.
12:49Key: Tioga, Texas, USA / 11:30am / 8 hours to showtime
Pan of Corral
VO 2.2:
Narrator: Lovett takes advantage of this relative calm before the performance to ease some stress by visiting his horses in near-by Tioga, Texas. Born to a family of ranchers, he has recently taken to breeding and competing ‘reining’ horses.Reining has a long American history, and looks like the western form of dressage: riders guide the horses through a precise pattern of circles, spins, and stops. Lyle is passionate about the breeding of his Stock horses… and he approaches his riding with the same discipline that he applies to his music. Sometimes it even helps to get the creative juices flowing.
13:25 Lyle OC driving
Key: Lyle Lovett / Singer / Songwriter
Lyle: “I ride some really, to learn about it and because it’s fun. You know and I’ve ridden all my life but I never went to a horse show. I never competed in a horse show in my life until, gosh, 5 years ago.”
Sound up: Woman: “She loves being pet on.” Lyle: “Well she’s easy to like” (laughs)
13:54 WS of Lyle and Tim on horse
Key: Tim McQuay / Horse Reigning Champion /
Lyle: “Tim is not only a great professional rider, competitor, he’s such a good teacher too, you know these guys are so knowledgeable and you see how when they ask the horse to do the things they want it
Breeder
Lyle trotting on horse
Lyle OC driving
to do, it’s very low stress on the horse. And that’s a nice feeling when the horse does its job willingly.
Going out and riding the horse those are activities that do support the creative side of things, well because riding a horse with a guy like Tim McQuay, it does inspire your imagination. It’s more of a – just something that makes you think.
I do enjoy pursuing things that I’m interested in but of course, I don’t get to ride the horses as much as I’d like, but the trade off is, when I’m not home getting to ride my horse, I’m getting to play a song and that’s something else that I really love to do. So I consider myself extraordinarily lucky in that regard, and I certainly realize that not everybody’s able to do something for a living that he loves to do, that he would do for fun if he weren’t able to do it for a living.”
Sound up: Lyle: (does a reigning trick – spins the horse around in a circle)
15:36 Transition graphicPan/tilt right/up of audience viewKey Sound Setup / 12:30pm / 7 hours to showtime
Key Jacob Perkins / Sound Technician
Jacob setting up audio gear and cable
Jacob: “So these cables carry all the audio that has to be processed before it goes to the speakers.
Jacob: We’re also multi-tasking as we’re about to pull the snake through the hole. You ready Jerry?”
Jacob pulling cables through hole in floor
Jerry: “Ready!” (He pulls up cables with a rope)
Jacob: And this is what brings all the audio from the stage to the mixing console.
On the stage we’ll put up all the microphones, the microphones go to one central box, and from that box, all of it comes through to up here. Once it comes in here we take it to these racks to be processed, and then it goes back through one of these to the stage to go to the speaker system.”
16:28Lighting truss being raised
Jack OCKey: Jack Albeck / Lighting Director / Production Manager
Sound Up: (Lighting truss being raised) Jack Albeck: “Uh, we’re going to go just a touch higher. Right there. Beautiful” Stagehand: “Love it in every way?” Jack: “I really do.” Jack: “We have a sponsorship deal with Yamaha, and that piano’s ours for the tour and that’s our piano every single day so sound wise, we always stay consistent. I bring a local tuner in everyday, and we tune the piano before sound check, and I have a tuner come back after sound check and touch it up right before the show.
Sound Up: Stagehands lift a grand piano onto staging.
Ryan: “Well we got the amps that the musicians use and we got different things; you got cello and this is the violin set-up. We got mandolin and acoustic guitar, electric guitar, so it’s setting up their pedals and their cables. Making sure there’s no noises or anything. Like the singers don’t require any set-up but the instrumentalists, there’s pedal steel, guitar, bass, the drummer, percussion, cello, violin, mandolin, guitar an electric guitar, and then Lyle’s got 2 acoustic guitars. And then the piano, which Gary takes care of the piano, so, quite a few instruments and connections and amplifiers and things to deal with you know, but I set up the risers and do all the
amps and try to use as much help as possible. you know I play guitar and have a band and so I’m familiar with how to set them up and how to work on the gear and I kinda know how to do it from playing with my own group so that helps a lot. I think that’s how most back line and instrument techs start- because they play music themselves.”
WS chairs and John walking across backgroundJohn OCKey: John Richards / Front of House Sound Engineer
Sound Up: (Instruments Tuning) Jack: “Just a hair offstage”
John: “We’re gonna level these 2 boxes out. You look at the top box on the stack, it’s pointed right at this seat. So we’re gonna get the other box pointed right at the seat. Then we’ll know after that that they’re going to hear it right here. The stack; every box in the stack has it’s own amplifier so we can adjust the stack from top to bottom. The ones at the top will be louder than the ones at the bottom when we get finished.”
Lyle: “I tell you- the crew- they just work so hard. and I think that’s the way life is really. There’s only nothing happening if you let it be that way. And certainly, when traveling around with 30 people and getting to go to a different city almost every day over a 2-month period, man, there’s a lot going on.”
19:48 Jack OC Jack: “Well it’s about 7 minutes to 2, which is about 7 minutes away from our 4 hours. And ideally in 7 minutes ideally we’re done with out initial set-up. We release the local crew then we take over and start doing sound, line checks, and getting ready for the band so it’s been a great day. All went according to plan (smiles).”
20:11 (Visual Transition) VO 2.3
\Key: Band Arrives for Sound Check / 3:45pm / 3 hours 45 minutes to showtime
Narrator: With Technical set-up now complete, the tight schedule will only allow the musicians and Sound Engineer John Richards less than an hour to get their sound dialed-in for the new venue.
Sound Up: (Ray Herndon vocals)
20:26 CU of man too close to microphoneJack OC
Jack: “Lyle’s been out for a while. Next thing that’s gonna happen is the band’s going to be arriving, getting ready for sound check and we’ll be practicing some of the songs and keeping up what they’ve got going on for the show for the day.”
20:38 Lyle +Performers on stage
Lyle and Billy OC
Sound Up: (Band arriving, General vocal and instrument warm up – Lyle greets Billy Williams.)
Lyle: “Billy Williams has produced every piece of music that I’ve ever recorded. From my first Demo’s in 1984 to all of our records. So he came to Fort Worth to help us finish the tour.”
Billy: “Is that where we are?” (laughs)
21:06
Billy OCKey: Billy Williams / Music Director / Studio Producer
Billy: “Lyle gets a lot of mental relief if I’m here listening for him. And he feels he doesn’t - I think he probably feels that – he feels a little bit more secure that someone is helping. I think you would describe it as listening to the band, analyzing what’s happening, to see if they’ve drifted into anything that can be corrected.”
21:28 MS of Sound Board
Russ OC behind Drum KitKey: Russ Kunkel / Drums
Russ: “Sound check in a 16-piece band is considerably different than a sound check with a 4 piece band. It can be chaotic if everybody wasn’t as conscientious as they are, that we only have a certain amount of time to do it, and no-one wants to be up here any longer than they have to. They want to give the front of house mixer and
the monitor mixer everything that they need. But, uh, it could be pandemonium.”
21:54 CU man with guitar Quick ZOut to Sam
Sam OCKey: Sam Bush / Mandolin
CU of Guitars
Lyle OC
Sound Up: Sam Bush: “This is the bluegrass side of the stage” (more guitar rehearsal)
Sam: “One of the thing’s I’ve learned - I’ve never been in an ensemble this big since I was in high school band – is that the larger the number of people it seems, or that’s the way this group plays. The larger the number of people, the less you play, the less notes you play, and you have to keep your parts sparse, otherwise it’s just gonna be a big cluttered mess. And um, so between Lyle and Billy Williams and the way the songs are arranged. It really – it stays uncluttered but when it gets big it gets really big. But at the same time, everybody - you gotta stick to you part.”
Sound Up: Lyle: “Hey Sammy, on ‘Up in Indiana’ we’re gonna stick with our regular game plan. We’ll just do our normal arrangement.” Bllly “No extensions” Lyle: “That okay? And, so alright, let’s run that.”
22:53 MS Lyle looking away
Billy On Stage
Billy: “Lyle, he knows what he wants, as you can tell by – when you hear his music, you know it’s Lyle, because of Lyle, not because of something that some of us have done. We just sort of help him get what he wants.”Sound Up: Lyle: “Solo section ‘Up in Indiana’, starting with the steel. (guitar tuning) …Count us in?” Russ: “One, two, one two three…”
23:21 City Shots
Key: Bass Performance Hall / Fort Worth, Texas, USAWS of auditorium
VO 3.1:
Narrator: Each day at 4pm, after several hours of Technical set up, Lyle Lovett and a group of some the most talented musicians in the world assemble on stage for a “Sound Check”. Despite the fact that
the tour is 46 shows deep, Lyle insists on daily rehearsals, and continually works at perfecting his songs.
23:42 Lyle and band practicing on stageKey: Sound Check / 4:00pm / 3 hours 30 minutes to showtime
Sound Up: Sound check rehearsal begins with “Up in Indiana”
Lyle: “As a songwriter, as the guy that makes up the songs to hear them come to life in the hands of these musicians is immensely gratifying. And so the chance to get to work on that every day and after a show if we have a night, an overnight drive to be able to talk about the show and think about what worked and what didn’t work and what we want to try different the next night, um that’s you know it’s really great.”
Sound Up: Song stops - Lyle: “We cut you a little short didn’t we. Let’s go ahead and, let’s play Mitch’s full solo. S we, you and I were together on it.” One, two, one two three” (“Up in Indiana” starts again)
24:50 MS of violin player
Key: Sam Bush / Mandolin
Sam: “Well, it’s his job to correct us I mean, you know, Lyle runs a tight ship, he’s a good leader, and if you see the show, he’s generous about featuring everyone, but I mean I’ve learned things from Lyle, in every situation there’s something to be learned.”
25:15 CU on guitar playing
Lyle OC driving
Lyle: “For the most part they’re my songs and I mean these guys that I’ve worked with over the long haul, I mean they just try and help me, I mean it’s just, it’s what it always feels like. They’re just trying to help me have it come out the way I have in mind for it to, -it’s just incredible just how generous they are really, and they, it just feels like this unconditional support that I get from them.”
Sound Up: “Up in Indiana” continues.
Drummer on stage
Lyle OC driving
Lyle: “Just standing in the middle of that band and listening to everybody and realizing the entire time that they are doing what they’re doing, you know, to help my songs, to bring my songs to life. Well, that’s a great feeling.”
Sound Up: “Up in Indiana” continues.
26:24 Full band practice on stage
Sam OC
Sam: “Ever since 1995 Lyle’s been calling me to be an occasional guest with the band sometimes for a couple of weeks. I’m here for the last 8 shows of their whole summer tour and so the main challenge is that you have to hit the ground running because - everybody else is tight, they’ve been doing this for a couple of months now and I can’t come in and mess it up, I mean I’m supposed to enhance, not distract and take away. But I mean fortunately I’ve played a lot over the years and there’s a catalogue of songs I do know. And every once an a while during sound check rehearsal I’m kind of, going “uh oh, I’ve got to go back and do some homework before the job and show up prepared.”
Sound Up: “Up in Indiana” song finishes.
27:28 Lyle on stage finishing song
Lyle OC driving
Lyle: “In a way it’s sort of like getting to go to musician fantasy camp. You know I mean to be able to play with Russ Kunkel and Victor Krauss and Mitch Watkins and Jim Cox and Ray Herndon, to be able to stand up there and say to one of the greatest drummers in the history of popular music and rock and roll – to be able to say, you know, “Try this” I mean, that’s just an extraordinary opportunity. And the idea of that occurs to me over and over throughout the course of a tour.”
Sound Up: Lyle “Where have you been getting your reference from?”
28:13 Far Shot Russ behind drum kit
Russ OC behind drum kitKey: Russ Kunkel / Drums
Russ: “This is 153, alright, try this? 1,2,3,4, 1” (next song “cute as a bug” starts)
Russ: “Lyle’s music is so eclectic, uh, it spans a lot of different genre, and some of it is a lot like the stuff I do with Jackson Brown or stuff that I did with James Taylor, but there are things that I get to play in Lyle’s Band that I never got to play before like a lot of the big-band swing tunes that he does and kind of the Texas swing stuff, I’ve never had an opportunity to do that, so it was a real great thing for me to be able to play that, and that’s a lot of fun, it’s a lot of different kinds of music. And he’s just a fun guy to be around too.”
Sound Up: (section of “Cute As a Bug” song)
28:45 Zout from band practice
John OCKey: John Hagen / Cello
John: “There are moments of improvisation and there are moments when we try to keep it as close to the album as possible. If there’s a signature solo on an album, we’ll keep it in the show. If there’s - we start throwing it around and adding solos, it’s totally up to the player.”
Sound Up: Section of John Hagen’s Cello Solo
29:39 ZOut from John’s Cello. Pan Left to Lyle
Lyle OC Driving
Lyle: “For me it’s such an extraordinary opportunity to have this group of musicians together for an extended period of time, even when you record in a recording studio, it’s s shorter period of time, you know you might – if you record 2 songs in a day, then you don’t go back to them but in a live situation on a tour, you have a chance to continue working on ideas over a several week period.”
Sound Up: More of John Hagen’s Cello Solo
30:15 John Cello soloBill OCKey: Billy Williams / Music Director/Studio Producer
Lyle and singers around microphone
Billy: “Things do change throughout the tour and I attribute that to Lyle wanting to make small changes to keep it more interesting in his mind, and I find that most refreshing when I come out and I’ve missed a bunch of shows.”
Sound Up: New song starts: “Make it happy.”
Billy: “A song called, “Slap your baby on the –“ um. I noticed that he has the group singing around him at the centre mic, as opposed to where they were at the beginning of the tour. Everyone was in their place on stage, we were all spread out, it’s much more intimate this way.“
Sound Up: Song continues : “Make it happy.”
33:20 Lyle and band around microphone
Lyle OC driving
Lyle: “We started doing that arrangement in the centre mic, only a couple of days ago. You know when you sing on mic you listen to a blend from a PA and the monitors, but when you stand next to somebody and sing, that’s a, whoa, that’s really fun.”
Sound Up: Song continues : “Make it happy.”
Lyle: “Willie Greene, Harry Bowens and Sweet Pea Atkinson and Arnold McCuller are just such extraordinary vocalists and uh, you know Arnold has sung on so many records that you’ve listened to. I mean if you just look and you’ll see, oh, there he is there he is, there he is. An incredible session singer. His main gigs over the years have been with Phil Collins and James Taylor.”
Sound Up: Song finishes “Make it happy.”
32:28 Extremely low angle shot with star flare John OC
John: “Lyle’s had such an amazing career. We’ve been touring for 22 years, but he keeps coming up with fresh ideas. He keeps the band fresh and it’s just amazing to me. If he’s gonna go on, I’ll go on as long as I can. Of course I’m older than he is, so.”
Sound Up: New song “I live in my own mind”
32:56 Insert: Lyle Lovett Choir door placard Key: Choir Rehearsal / 6:00pm / 1 hour 30 minutes to showtime
Sound Up: Choir rehearsesVO 4.1:Narrator: After the Sound Check, pianist Jim Cox goes over some last minute rehearsals with the local choir that will perform in tonight’s show. On this tour, Lyle has invited a different choir in every city to add the gospel component to his sound.
Sound Up: Choir rehearses
33:26 ECU of singer
City shotsBeauty Shot Concert Poster
Audience beginning to que in lobby Key: Audience Arrival / 6:30 pm / 60 minutes to showtime
VO 4.2:
Narrator: Tonight, “Eric Birdine and the Messengers”, based in Fort Worth Texas, have been hand picked to fill that roll. They’ve rehearsed the music for months, but tonight on stage will be their 1st time performing it live with the large band.
Sound Up: Fan: “Lyle Lovett, baby! Whoa!” Ticket Collector rips ticket: “Enjoy the show.” Fan: “Thank you.” Choir practice finishes. Jim Cox: “Great, that’s it, that’s a song.”
34:20 City shots ZoutKey: Lyle Lovett Creates Setlist / 6:50pm / 40 minutes to showtimeWS of busses
Key: Russ Kunkel / Drums
Russ: “Lyle doesn’t like to play the same set that he did in a town that he played previously – he likes to change it up, which I don’t know any other artist that does that.
He’s very conscientious about giving people a show they haven’t seen before.”
34:33 Instert person holding playbill
Key: John Hagen/ Cello
Key: Wardrobe / 7:00pm / 30 minutes to showtime
John: “Sometimes we get into a groove where there’s a certain thing like if we, new album we’re promoting – a lot of those songs we’ll try to get as many of those in as possible, so they’ll show up every night. And then it’ll be filled in with, I mean he’s got such a big catalogue of songs. He’ll fill them in with whatever he feels like that night, and they can vary.”
Sound Up: (Victor puts on sock) John: “Now that’s a look. Victor dresses backwards. He dresses from the top down.” (laughs)
Lyle: “In the beginning of the tour we just sort of think about how it’s gonna work, within that way of what can we do to highlight the particular musical attributes of this group of musicians. I consciously don’t want this show to be like last year’s show when we went out with the band. It’s more of an exercise for me and just thinking about how I want the show to go, then it is trying to figure out what we’re going to do.”
Sound-Up: Fan: “Lyle Lovett, Whoa!” (Laugh) Fan 2: “We in the right place?”
Usher: “Yes you sure are. Enjoy the performance” Fan 2: “Thank you very much”
35:44 People talking in hall
James OCKey: James Gilmer / Percussion / Road Manager
James: Lyle and I have worked together so long, we started working together back in 1978, I guess we just kind of click on the right things for each night during the set. Really I’m just like a sound-board for him to throw things at and see if it – you know
what my opinion is of ‘em too.
36:02Lyle OC driving
Lyle: “I enjoy discussing the previous night’s show with him and listening to his input, I mean that’s – it would be the biggest mistake in the world for me to not allow these talented people that I get to work with, Input – you know?. I want them to play. I want them to bring their ideas to our show and to my music, and in doing that, I hope it makes it fun and interesting for them.”
Sound Up: Guitarist strums backstage “Almost time.” Ray Herndon and Willie Greene do vocal warm ups. Ray: “Now I’ll go way up… Boy, that is high!” (laughs)
36:48 WS of audience filling seats
Key: Mitch Watkins / Electric Guitar
Mitch: “Well, there’s always a bit of jitters, for me that’s never gone away. Yeah, there’s a ritual for me. I go and tune and make sure my fingers still work and uh, you know, just warm up a bit.”
37:06 Ray OC
Key: Ray Herndon / Electric Guitar / Vocals
John tuning and pans between John and Ray
Ray: “Getting a little finger exercise, a little warm up because we got a lot of duel guitars to go on out there in a little bit.”
Sound Up: Backstage Dressing room: Ray: “C’mon in. You can see John warming up. This is John’s ritual, right here. (John tunes cello) John is preparing for the show.” John:” I have to tune. I’m tuning that one. Especially that one.” Ray: “But of you go, ‘Ooooh’ like that it helps him a lot. Oooh… He loves that joke.” John: “And you know what? That Joke never gets old. In their minds.”
Ray: “It doesn’t. I laugh every time.” John: “Watch” (tunes) Ray: “Ooooh.” (feigns laughter) John: “It just kills him! It kills him every time. That’s so funny, wait..” (tunes)
Ray: “Oooh.” Feigns laughter again. Ray: “It’s so funny!” John: “Alright Ray, alright. Nobody’s paying you to be an actor.”
38:05 MS of John tuning
Sam OCKey: Sam Bush / Mandolin
Sam: “Each one of us I’m sure has a routine. As a mandolin player, one control I have over my sound, is to have good, new strings every day, I like to take a piece of steel wool and just go up and down ‘em, Even if they’re new, even new strings have a slight bit of tarnish on them, and then that makes them a little slicker, and I think it helps the pick not wear quite as fast. Because I use the side of a pick and then sometimes I need to just kind of take steel wool and make sure the sides are nice and smooth. And because I play so hard I’ve got to coat my 1st - well and I broke my finger years ago and the nail came back really thin - I have to coat it with crazy glue because sometimes I’m strumming and brushing on the strings and it’ll almost wear a hole in it so, once you do that you’ve got to take 1500 sandpaper, sand it smooth and then take some steel wool to get it smooth and (snap) you’re ready to go. (laughs) And the bottom line is: if I think it helps, it helps. That’s what it is: I think it helps so I guess it does.”
39:13 WS of audience sitting
Key: Setlist Complete / 7:10pm / 20 minutes to showtime
Lyle steps off bus
Sound Up:
Ray: “Willie did you see the setlist?”
Willie: “No”
Ray: “Well we’re going to find one.” Ray: “Find the setlist buddy.” (looks in dressing room)
CU/Insert of setlist
John OC
Ray: “Did you get a setlist? Next Room? Next room… Setlist, got a setlist? Here’s the setlist!”
Mitch: “There you have it. There you have today’s official document – today’s gospel.” John: “Don’t put that on the internet.”
John: “We see the set list usually, maybe 20 minutes before the show and we’ll take a good quick look at it and plan accordingly what we’re gonna be needing to do, if anything is different that night or what is different, what’s been added, or what’s been taken out.”
40:15 Arnold marking setlist
Key: Arnold McCuller / Vocals
Sound Up: Arnold McCuller marks his setlist: Arnold: “3, no big deal I’m not there so I’ve only got 3 tunes at the top of the set. Then I wait from here, to here. Oh my god I could die. 4. 5, 6.”
40:28 CU of Setlist
Key: Bass Hall Nears Capacity / 7:27pm / 3 minutes to showtime
John: “It is always interesting and we’re very curious to see the set list because you know, you might be under some pressure where you weren’t under pressure last night. Because there is some pressure when you’re playing for 2 or 3 or 5 thousand people in different situations, so we’re always curious to get the set list,
Sound Up: John rehearses cello backstage
40:50Key: Bass Performance Hall / Fort Worth, Texas, USAInsert on Camera LCD screen
Various shots of performers preparing and final practice.
VO 5.1:
Narrator: After sleeping on a bus the night before, Lyle and his team of 30 world class technicians and musicians have spent the last 12 hours preparing for tonight’s very special performance in Fort Worth Texas. This crew has seemingly moved mountains to make this show happen, facing overwhelming amounts of work with unforgiving deadlines at each location, and
amazingly, they’ve done it 46 times in 53 days.
Sound Up: Audience mills. Final Audience members take seats.
41:20 WS of auditorium, audience sitting ready
VO 5.2:
Narrator: And now, after hours of set up and preparation, it’s show time. At precisely 7:30pm Lyle Lovett steps on stage – and this well oiled machine starts up right on cue, with the sole intent of bringing his best music to life. These are internationally respected songs, and it takes the musical strength of all these exceptional musicians to bring it to life.
Sound Up: Lights dim, Audience claps.
41:50 Fade Out of audience from StageBilly OC
Key: Billy Williams / Music Director / Studio Producer
Billy: “Listen to his first record, and listen to all those songs and I think everyone can hear a uniqueness in what he does; The brilliance in his lyric; with Lyle I think that’s one thing that makes him so attractive to his fans. And that is, he doesn’t give into the obvious. He says what he wants to say in the way that he wants to say it, and that’s Lyle. That’s the magic.”
Sound Up: Song starts “I’m A Soldier, In The Army of the Lord”.
Lyle: “You know, no 2 shows, as similar as they might seem. No two shows ever feel the same to me. No two audiences ever feel the same. And what from the - from an outside perspective might seem repetitive, there’s just a great deal of variety.”
Sound Up: Song continues “I’m A Soldier, In The Army of the Lord”.
Lyle: “It’s just really pure fun I think. And there’s not a better feeling then seeing people enjoy. There’s got to be a certain
ZIn on Lyle singing
amount of vanity to it. It is, it’s a great feeling to see people enjoy what you do.”
Sound Up: Song continues “I’m A Soldier, In The Army of the Lord”.
Lyle: “You’re not doing it for the reaction, I mean it’s just kind of a- it’s a great bonus if there is a good reaction, and if there’s a good enough reaction, it allows you to keep doing it. And that’s where, I think that’s the addictive nature of it.”
Sound Up: Song continues “I’m A Soldier, In The Army of the Lord”.
43:50 ZOut from Lyle to show more of stage
Billy: “He’s a very unique talent, he has a vision of his songs and the way he wants them from the beginning, and I think that’s the main reason that it’s Lyle Lovett music. It’s always been the same. It’s always had that wonderful thing.”
Sound Up: Song finishes “I’m A Soldier, In The Army of the Lord”. Audience cheers.
43:45 Dip to blackNight venue exteriorKey: Final Encore Complete / 10:25pm
Sound Up: Lyle: “Thank you very much.” Audience cheers – band runs offstage. John: “That was a show. Very nice” Vocalist: “Yes, it was very good, I loved it.”
44:49 Performers leaving stage through hall.
Sam OCKey: Sam Bush / Mandolin
Sam: “once we’re through playing, yeah, we can relax, have a beer and have a laugh. But I mean there’s been enough of the same musicians over the years with Lyle that it is a family style atmosphere, I love to watch these guys go at each other – in a playful way, cause, and I get to join in now too because I now know everybody pretty well.”
Sound Up: Russ: “Sam Bush! My favorite
Bush!” (they hug, laugh).
45:18 Performers hugging.
John OCKey: John Hagen / Cello
John: “This is my family, uh, that’s one reason I really enjoy coming out on the road because I’m never having as much fun or am as active or around as many people as I am on the road with these guys. It’s terrific, I love it.”
Sound Up: Beer opened. Sam Bush: “Mighty fine Uncle Russ. My Golly.” Piano Player: “Wonderful bits of business.” John: “Whiskey River, take my pants!” (laughter)
45:47 Performers in dressing room Victor OCKey: Victor Krauss / Bass
Victor: “It’s kind of like being in a play, you know where you become really close with this good group of friends and you share all the same silly jokes and then when you get off the tour it’s kind of like re-entering into your real, you know, into your real life.”
Sound Up: Buck Reid enters dressing room46:03 Man enters through double
doors
Men in dressing room having fun.
Ray: “Way to go Buck.” John: “He gets it done. Damn right. Way to go Buck.” Sam: “and let’s hear it for the unsung hero of the band, Mr. Ray Herndon, ladies and gentlemen! (clapping) Razor! Look at that energy!” Ray pretends to be asleep then wakes up.
Ray “Oh, sorry. Hey how you doin’?” John: “Showtime Ray!” (laughs) Sam: “It’s time to play.” (laughs). Ray: “No. Great show.” Sam drinks “Ahh – here’s to a frosty beverage.” Arnold: “Cheers, mate.” Sam: “And a fine show, ladies and gentlemen. I don’t care what they say, I think we’re really good.” Arnold: “I don’t care what you say. I think I’m really good.”
Sam: “Damn right.”(laughs)
46:44 People gathered in room as woman in green ushers
Key: VIP After Show Reception / 10:30pm
Lyle OC driving
Sound Up: VIP audience members mill. PR Woman: “C’mon back, c’mon in! You’re doing good – come back this way.”
Lyle: “Playing in Texas we know so many people I mean a lot of people who were at the after show reception were people that I really know and uh, or who were friends of people that I really know so sure, I’m happy to meet them.”
Sound Up: Guitarist: “This is my brother’s wife, Lesley.” Lesley: “Hi, nice to meet you.”
Lyle: “Very nice to meet you.” Guitarist: “This is my sister, Jane.” Lyle: “Oh, so nice to meet you.”
Lyle: “I’m so grateful to the people that buy tickets and come to our shows, but you know, they might not always do that, and I think any performer is aware of that and so, in that way it really enables you to appreciate the people who are there right now. The fact that they come to see you is just huge. And, you know, those are the people that keep you going. The only thing I don’t really like about those after show receptions is uh, you don’t have time to really talk to somebody. I always worry that I’m not able to give quite enough time to folks, and I’d hate for somebody to walk away from that, you know, not feeling good about it.”
48:03 Lyle in VIP after show VO 5.3:
Narrator: Tonight’s show held an extra special meaning for Lyle, as his mother Bernell was also in the audience.
?Lyle talking to mother.
Lyle: “Gosh, without mom and dad’s encouragement and support, I would never
Lyle OC driving
have had the chance to play music. The song “South Texas Girl” is really, you know, for me is about – thinking about my parents relationship and how good they were to me and now I’ve got my relationship with April and you know just sort of the circle of life. I hope there’s not a finish line. That’s what it is. Uh, the tour will be over but the music isn’t over and the pursuit of the next song is never over and looking forward to the next show is never over.”
Lyle: Early in my career, uh, when I first started doing promotion and promotional interviews, sometimes I would be asked, “If you’re able to be successful, what would that be” and, the answer that I would give to that question now is just the same as it was then and that is: success to me is to be able to keep doing something I like to do; to be able to keep doing this. It’s the doing of it that is the success of it. The reward, the payoff, whatever you want to call it is just getting to do it. That’s what it’s about.”
