Piece Comment

Review of Songwriter's Summit With Lyle Lovett


This is a delightful hour for use on a Triple-A station or in a weekend "special" slot. It's one of 10 shows produced from concerts recorded at L.A.'s Disney Concert Hall.

This "Songwriter's Summit" brings together some of our era's best-known singer-songwriters namely, Guy Clark, Joe Ely, John Hiatt, and Lyle Lovett. The entertaining hour features individual on-stage performances of some new songs and old standards by the four artists and ends with a rousing finale with all four joining in Woody Guthrie's "Old Dusty Road."

I don't claim to be a music critic, but my experience of this show was of one performance better than another for the entire hour. Although I've never been among them, some so-called "purists" have a problem with "live" recordings due to the inherent flaws in performance, recording and mixing. This is a very well mixed, balanced and satisfying production. The recordings are a bit heavy on ambience but, heck that adds to the "you are there" feel of the production.

This is a more hard-edged production than you might expect from a Disney production. PDs may want to know about a potentially offensive word in the lyrics of John Hiatt's "I Ain't Ever Goin' Back No More." At 28:45 into the show, Hiatt refer's to a "shitty bar."

Those familiar with Renee Montagne as the co-host of NPR's Morning Edition will be impressed with her hosting skills in this venue. Her contributions were informative, friendly and appropriately informal. There are a couple of very brief artist interview clips in this production. It could stand a few more.

Regarding the formatics, I am grateful that it includes a mid-point station "break." It also includes mandatory NPR funding credits. I would appreciate a newscast option.

I listened to this program on a recent trip and it made for great in-flight entertainment. My experience with this one will cause me to listen to the rest of the series to see how many of these shows I might consider for air on my station.