Lyle Lovett released 12th of June last year, his first album of original material since 2012’s Release Me. In yet another example of the pandemic getting in the way of best-laid plans, Lovett had things all lined up for a much earlier arrival of his latest batch of music.

“We recorded these tracks in November of 2019 with the idea of finishing them in March of 2020,” Lovett said in a phone interview.

While Lovett did get to join his Large Band in the studio and record the basic tracks for 12th of June, the pandemic had a huge effect on mixing and other work required from that point forward to finish the album.

“Chuck Ainlay, my producer in Nashville (Tennessee), would go through tracks and mix and go through as we made edits and changes,” Lovett said. “He would email me everything he was doing, and then I would listen on my own. It was just not the same. The back and forth is just not as much fun, really, because a decision that would take five minutes to make in the studio would end up being two or three days by e-mail. 

“So, it slowed everything down immensely. It’s just not as much fun listening and analyzing something all by yourself as it is working with people. So I missed the interaction. I missed the humanity in making the record, and it felt more, in the context of being isolated from the world anyway, it added to that feeling of isolation rather than helped to diminish it.”

With the pandemic subsided, Lovett is back on the road, making a stop at Honeywell Center in Wabash on Thursday, Oct. 26, with folk singer Leo Kottke.

Large Band reimagines classic ballads

Eventually, Lovett got to work in person with Ainlay to put the finishing touches on 12th of June.

Lovett, one of music’s finest and most literate songwriters, has done his share of excellent albums that lean toward country and feature a good bit of acoustic instrumentation with 1987’s Pontiac, 1992’s Joshua Judges Ruth, 2012’s Release Me, and 12th of June, his third studio album billed with his Large Band.

With this ensemble of talented musicians, Lovett is able to greatly expand his musical reach. That’s obvious right from the start of 12th of June, which opens with a version of jazz great Horace Silver’s “Cookin’ at the Continental,” a lively instrumental that lets the Large Band showcase their considerable chops.

Three duets with Lovett’s longtime vocal counterpart Francine Reed further cement the jazz credentials of all involved as they tackle two songs associated with Nat King Cole: the peppy “Straighten Up and Fly Right,” the bluesy ballad “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You,” and the David Frishberg-penned standard “Peel Me A Grape.”

Lovett’s more country-leaning sound emerges on the ballads “Her Loving Man,” “The Mocking Ones,” and the title track, while “Pig Meat Man” puts a bit of soul and blues into the mix. “Are We Dancing” adds a string-laden ballad that is rooted in the pre-rock n’ roll era. 

Incorporating personal life into songs

The 10-year gap between 12th of June and Release Me was largely the product of being between record deals and needing time to figure out how he wanted to release his next collection of songs. That was coupled with a major development in Lovett’s personal life: his marriage to longtime girlfriend April Kimble in 2017, followed by the birth of the couple’s twins. 

Along with touring commitments — Lovett tends to play about 100 concerts during normal years — these factors absorbed a lot of time.

Marriage and fatherhood figure prominently into the lyrics of the original songs on 12th of June. 

“Her Loving Man” is a tribute to Kimble and her intelligence, wisdom, and warmth. The title song is a touching tune that imagines a father carrying his love for his wife and children into the next life. Lovett applies his trademark wry humor to “Pants Is Overrated,” which was inspired one day when his children were resisting the idea of getting dressed, and “Pig Meat Man” is an ode to pork. 

Having already done a winter/spring run with his acoustic band, followed by a summer tour with his full 14-member Large Band, Lovett is ending the year by trading songs with Kottke on a solo acoustic tour. He just finished similar shows with John Hiatt and Chris Isaak. 

“You know, it’s just so much fun because this is a chance for me to hang out with some of my favorite songwriters and to get to talk with them,” Lovett said.