On the surface, it might seem as though the only traits that bond Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt are their singer/songwriter status and their gender.
Still, you don’t have to dig too far to find the similarities that make perfect sense of the current Hiatt/Lovett solo acoustic tour. They have both made their reputations as eclectic genre benders, preferring to allow the feel of their songs to dictate their ever-evolving musical surroundings rather than force their songs into a label-defined pigeonhole. They both use a combination of sly humor (Hiatt’s “Little Head,” Lovett’s “Creeps Like Me”) and heartbeaking emotion (Hiatt’s “When We Ran,” Lovett’s “She’s Already Made Up Her Mind”) in their songwriting, resulting in albums that inspire equal amounts of laughter, tears and reflection. And both John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett have delightfully skewed visions of what constitutes a love song.
The show is 8 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Aronoff Center. $37.50-$57.50. Get more Sound Advice on the show here.
