If you can’t go to Texas for Christmas, the Lone Star State will come to you.

My husband as a pre-teen left cold, cold Buffalo, New York (which might as well be Canada) for deep-in-the-heart of Texas where the temperature is always…air conditioned. Christmas was never white again.

For as long as I’ve known him, and many years before that, Jeff’s gone home to his parents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the holidays. It had become our annual tradition to pack up the presents and the kiddies and make our way through the gates of hell (meaning cab rides, security checks, flight transfers, baggage claims) for Christmas. Last year was our last straw as you would know if you read my bleak report from Texas with two really sick and miserable kids.

So we stayed home this year and Texas Mom was kind enough to weather those gates and come to us; Texas Dad will do the same (by car!) in January. This weekend with the mother-in-law to entertain, we were on the hunt for some relaxing local activities, and low and behold: Texas-bred Lyle Lovett happened to pull in his tour bus to a sold-out crowd at the Music Hall.

Now, I'll be honest and make myself look like a petty gossip rag reader by saying I am not very familiar with Lovett beyond his short of blip of a marriage to Julia Roberts back in the day when we all examined his fly-away hair (still there) and his skinniness (still very skinny) and wondered how that came to pass and would it last? Well it didn’t of course, but you can certainly feel his charm from afar when you listen to three hours of his music, interspersed with humorous chatty interludes.

With no opening act to cushion him, Lovett and his five very talented musicians/back up vocalists, all super-dapper in well-fitted suits, played a country/blue-grass combo of many, many, many tunes. Thirty-four songs by my count, but I may have lost track. I think the other thing I knew about Lovett was that he puts on a good show, and it's true: this man works hard for his money. Lovett had more stamina than perhaps even his audience, one lady actually passing out after the show. 

The audience felt comfortable enough to interrupt Lovett and shout out requests. “Penguin,” someone screamed and he actually played this thirty-second ditty about a lady obsessed with penguins (like me!). 

Lovett praised the dedication of the management, the same folks running the place he saw last time he played here some years back. He bid us all good luck for this time of year so full of family. And he said, a few times, how grateful he was to be in Tarrytown. "I feel priviledged to be up here this close to Christmas because it really feels like Christmas up here. Seeing all the lights and actually not having to run the air conditioning..."