First off, this best-of collection's obligatory new tunes: Truck Song is great, one of those mid-tempo call and response songs in which Lovett does all the pondering, all the singing. It feels like he takes a breath maybe once a minute or so.

Next is track No. 8, San Antonio Girl, which is structurally exactly the same song as Truck Song, a sneaky reprise! So there's an instant familiarity to it, especially in the mundane, but catchy, lyrics: "Well, it was late then, we should have turned in, but she was hungry and I was interested in Mi Tierra's huevos rancheros. We took some Poloroids right at the table." The idea of a musical snapshot of a snapshot works.

From there, we have the "hits," a sampling of Lovett's various brushstrokes in his portrait of what it means to be a man.

There's the great If I Had a Boat, in which he comes to Tonto's defence for doing all the work. Or how about the wonderful God Will, Lovett saying that God will forgive lying and cheating, "and that's the difference between God and me." Damn smart.

There's the song he co-wrote with Robert Earl Keen (whom he mentions by name in San Antonio Girl), This Old Porch, and the sad rodeo song Farther Down the Line. They're all worthy of seeing on the shelf again.

Lyle Lovett is the smartest of all the country boys, so much so he exists in a different matrix. There's something very city about this weird Texas cowboy. Plus, bonus: best damn hair in the world.

How could an album of cowboy songs go wrong in this man's able hands? (More on: Lyle Lovett).

Track Listing 1. The Truck Song
  2. Cowboy Man
  3. God Will
  4. Farther Down The Line
  5. This Old Porch
  6. Why Don't I Know
  7. If I Were The Man You Wanted
  8. San Antonio Girl
  9. If I Had A Boat
  10. Give Back My Heart
  11. I Loved You Yesterday
  12. Walk Through The Bottomland
  13. L.A. County
  14. Which Way Does That Old Pony Run
  15. If You Were To Wake Up