In the days of fly-by-night, flash-in-the-pan, catering to redneck tini-bopper, pop country stars, it is nice to know there are still some gentlemen song writers out there like Lyle Lovett.

It seems that give a guy an acoustic guitar, long hair, cowboy hat and boots then cut the sleeves off his shirt, you got a C&W star.

Whereas most country stars are made with rough-around-the-edges glamour-boys with rugged good looks and probably never touched a cow before, Mr. Lovett is the real deal...with just rugged looks AND a farming background.

It should be noted in the interest of open reporting that Mr. Lovett was a student of journalism at Texas A&M and part of my fondness is sharing that commonality. One difference, if we need to point one out, is I am pretty sure he did not graduate. This fact is unconfirmed as I read between the Wikipedia lines:"He attended Texas A&M University, where he studied German and journalism"....usually when you say something like that, they never got around to graduating, otherwise it would read: Graduated in 1988... or some such.

But that shouldn't take away the fact he seems like a great guy. Self effacing and genuine in thought and action. I don't dig his gospel or blues so much as his mournful bluegrass, remeniscent of Townes Van Zandt.

I ambushed him after the show and while I could not get close enough to meet him, I hollered something he would recognize: "Fightin' Texas Aggie Journalism!." To that he turned around and said "Hey" but was hustled off to his bus by security...Lyle Lovett said "hey" to me!