from Ann Arbor News on annarbor.com

Lyle Lovett first broke though to the pop audience in the late 1980s by fronting a “large band,” but on his current tour, it’s just two guys with acoustic guitars. The other guy in this case is John Hiatt, and on this tour, the two of them are onstage together, taking turns singing songs, asking each other questions, shooting the breeze and basically acting like they’re just sitting around the front porch on a Saturday night.

That underscores what has always been one of Lovett’s greatest talents: the ease with which he segues in and out of big band jazz-rock, acoustic country-folk, Western swing, gospel and blues. Or, the way he often incorporates a few of those elements into a single song.

The tour comes to the Michigan Theater on Monday.

Hiatt is a frequent touring partner for Lovett — they played the Michigan together in February 2009 — and the two definitely share a kinship. Hiatt also draws deeply on most of those same roots-music styles, and both have long displayed an ability to shift gears from an emotionally penetrating song to one that is brimming with sharp wit and clever wordplay.

Lovett has been busy lately. In December, he did a 13-performance run in the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles’ stage production of “Much Ado About Nothing,” with Helen Hunt and Sara and Sean Watkins (of Nickel Creek). He also recently appeared in the ABC crime drama “Castle” and was featured in the documentary “For the Sake of the Song: The Story of Anderson Fair,” a film about an iconic Houston music venue and the role it’s played in helping to preserve various American musical traditions.

Lovett’s most recent album is “Natural Forces,” which he released in October 2009. He continues to draw on songs from that album in his current live show, even as he also reaches back and retrieves old ones from his deep catalog, which goes back to the mid-‘80s.

Hiatt’s latest album, ‘The Open Road,” was released last spring. (See our July 2010 story on Hiatt here

Lovett recorded “Natural Forces” with his Large Band, and the songs on the disc range from pensive and poignant to jazzy, rollicking or bluegrassy. And Lovett’s deadpan drollery is also on display, as usual.

(read full story on annarbor.com)