Tuesday, September 22, 1998

Lyle Lovett released “Step Inside This House”

image from heraldextra.com

Step Inside This House

Lyle Lovett

Writer(s): Guy Clark (see lyrics here)

Released: 9/22/1998 as album cut on Step Inside This House

First Charted: --

Peak: 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.)

Sales (in millions): --

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1.114 video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

For his seventh album, Lyle Lovett decided to a tribute with a double album of covers of songs written by fellow Texans. The title cut was written by Guy Clark as “Step Inside My House.” Clark says it was the first song he ever wrote, ^MS but it never appeared on any of his albums. ^WK In fact, he never even recorded it. ^MS

Eric Taylor (who wrote “Memphis Midnight/Memphis Morning” – another track on the Step Inside This House album) introduced the song to Lovett. ^WC It had become sort of a shared song amongst local Houston songwriters. ^WC In the mid-to-late ‘90s, Clark, Lovett, Joe Ely and John Hiatt did a handful of acoustic shows together. One night, Lovett surprised Clark by performing the song and declaring it was one he wished he’d written. ^WC

Lyle explains. “We were doing one of the guitar pulls at the Paramount Theatre in Vancouver. We were riding the elevator after the show which I had ended with ‘Step Inside This House.’…So Guy said, ‘Man, I wish you would stop doing that song. That song is too long. There’s a reason I never recorded it.’ I laughed. I think it’s a brilliant song.’” ^LS Lovett got permission from Clark to use it for the Step Inside This House album. ^WK

Of Clark, Lovett said, “He’s always himself. Guy is one of the most honest people you’ll ever meet…To get to sit on stage and watch him play one of his songs is incredible.” ^LS Clark was instrumental in getting Lovett signed to a record deal in the late ‘80s. Clark heard a demo tape of Lovett’s in the mid-‘80s and started passing around copies to people in Nashville. He gave a copy to Tony Brown at MCA Records who signed Lovett. ^WC