Lyle Lovett and His Large Band (1992)

Singer-songwriter Lovett has steadily modified his barbed-wire-wedding-cake hairdo — it now looks more like a firm wedge of pecan pie sitting on top of his head — and his small role as a dour detective in Robert Altman's The Player has won lots of praise. And his latest album, Joshua Judges Ruth, only enhances his reputation as a hip outsider with a high profile. Now all he needs is a hit single.

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, an in-concert half hour, filmed at the Granada Theatre in Dallas, finds Lovett in a trim dark suit, white shirt, and tie, strumming an enormous acoustic guitar with his long, spidery fingers. He plays selections from Joshua that mingle pop, jazz, gospel, and folk; it's clever music that also emphasizes Lovett's crucial limitation: It's all rather cold and ironic, lacking in warmth and passion. B