Lyle Lovett – “Natural Forces”
Posted on | October 14, 2009 | 2 Comments
1. First and foremost, Lyle Lovett is a cowboy. Aside from declaring that on several songs, he owns and operates a working ranch in Klein, TX, on land that his family has owned for years. That said, it should be understood that he knows a thing or two about land ownership. His new single, the title track from his upcoming record Natural Forces, distinguishes between owning the land and being owned by the land. Lovett understands that there are laws that he cannot control, and for every force that drives him to work the land, there is an equal and opposite pull away from any sense of domesticity and stillness, a wild freedom whose calling proves irresistible for many men.
2. Lyle begins, naturally, by telling us the story a cowboy over a loping beat. His usual roster of A-list musicians knows exactly how to support and stay out of the way of a good story, keeping the song moving, with an agile mix of fiddle, guitar, and the dry thump of drums. Lovett’s cowboy crosses the plains, “bidding his former life goodbye”. As he turns down the unknown woman who offers him a way out, he declares:
“It’s on my steed I will rely/
I’m underneath the auburn sky
I’m subject to the natural forces/
My home is where my horse is”
Lovett continues by modernizing the tale, as a trucker heads to the west coast from Buffalo, experiencing the freedom of crossing America. Exchanging the horse for an 18-wheeler, the feeling loses none of its untamed pedigree. Changing tack to address the humility of Native Americans, he rattles off a short list of tribes who “volunteered to move, they say”. Lovett praises the people, unjustly removed from their lands, who are able to say that their home is where their horse is, though they quietly believe that “we’ll understand come Judgment Day”.
3. Though this would all make a very nice parallel about ownership, duty, and responding to the pull of the wild, Lovett sharpens his pencil and turns the camera on himself. Sitting “safe at home, with a cold Coors Light and the T.V. on”, Lovett hopes that he is “worth fighting for”, and praises the soldier that continues until “Earth and Hell are satisfied”. Addressing his own feeling of entitlement makes the song entirely personal, drawing a line in the sand between those who pursue their calling and those who don’t. Willing to put himself on the wrong side of that line to prove a point, Lovett questions what it means to respond to a sense of duty in all aspects of the word. Lovett has always had the ability to tell a story by tracing the edges and letting the listener fill in the gaps. Here he is a little more direct, perhaps due to the wisdom that comes with age. As he matures his sound, he increases his mastery of the wit and clarity that has sustained him this far. I wish more artists were willing to draw blood like this.
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October 16th, 2009 @ 9:25 pm
Saw him perform this in Eugene last night (on tour with John Hiatt) and I think it sounds even better with him playing it solo …
October 29th, 2009 @ 6:36 pm
Saw Lyle perform this at the Sanger in Mobile Alabama. Although I like to hear acoustic versions of his songs, I liked the fullness that his large band adds to the song. The song had a patriotic effect on the crowd.