(FORTUNE Magazine) – Lyle Lovett Lyle Lovett and His Large Band Live in Texas (MCA)

It's sad that most people think of Lyle Lovett as "that guy with the big hair who mysteriously won Julia Roberts' heart--then lost it." While factually dead-on, that dismissal slights one of our sliest storytellers since Raymond Carver. A down-home protean who broke into the business via Nashville (Lovett's albums have run from jaundiced country to rockabilly to coffeehouse sardonic), Lovett here takes the form of a rapt, ironical Bible thumper leading a conga line into the Promised Land.

For those not hip to Lovett's cunning wit and honeyed voice, one listen to Live in Texas should make for a quick conversion. On "Church," his lyrics feel like a deliciously subversive back-porch tale to be savored over a glass of sun tea. On "I've Been to Memphis," Lovett's 18-piece Large Band (including a monstrous horn section) is like a gospel juggernaut. But there is really no point in singling out specific tracks; of the album's 14 Sunday-choir rave-ups, there's not a dud in the lot. In my heaven, this would be St. Peter's house band.

--C.N.

SAM TANENHAUS, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, is currently writing a biography of William F. Buckley Jr. JAMES PONIEWOZIK writes about media for Salon; CHRIS NASHAWATY is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly.