He’s really just a down-home boy

Lyle Lovett has recorded gold records, acted in films and traveled the world playing music.

But the lanky Texan says his greatest joy is rescuing the family homestead from developers.

“Most of the place was sold by the family in 1980 before the bottom dropped out of the oil market,” says the 49-year-old Lovett.

“I was able to buy it back from the investment group that bought it. I’ve put most of it back together, and for me that’s been my greatest accomplishment.”

He shares the 200-acre spread with his mother, his uncle and several head of cattle in Klein, Texas, about 28 miles north of Houston.

In many ways, Lovett’s music is an extension of his home and his family.

On his new album, “It’s Not Big It’s Large” (a reference to his Large Band), he sings in “South Texas Girl” of cruising the back roads with his parents in a ‘58 Fairlane:

“But now looking back, it seems like it was everything, singing with Mom, just so we could hear ourselves sing.”

As usual, the album – which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard country chart, the best showing of his career – is a mixture of country, folk, rock, gospel, jazz and blues.

“Writing songs is part of my daily life and really a reaction to my day-to-day life,” Lovett says. “For me, writing is just an exercise in trying to figure everything out.”

His tunes are often playful, eclectic and subtle. His friend, fellow Texas singer-songwriter Joe Ely, says he heard Lovett’s 1988 song “L.A. County” several times before he realized it was a murder ballad.

“He’s from Texas and has that tradition of growing up with all that stuff, plus listening to people like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt and the great storyteller tradition of the Southwest. He’s so steeped in that,” says another musical cohort, John Hiatt.

By his second album, 1988’s “Pontiac,” Lovett was delving deeper into the jazzy arrangements and edgy lyrics that steered him from the mainstream.

In 1993, he married actress Julia Roberts after they met on the set of Robert Altman‘s film “The Player.” The marriage lasted about two years and drew intense publicity; to this day, Lovett doesn’t discuss it publicly.

While he’s still tagged a country artist, his music is far more at home on alternative radio than on country stations.

All that’s fine by Lovett, who says he’s thankful he makes the record company enough money that they let him keep his job, but not so much that they’re overly concerned with the way he does it.

He tours steadily and releases new material every three or four years. And, of course, whenever possible, he heads home.

“Nothing is more important than family, and it makes me feel really good to keep that place together,” Lovett says.

“My mom will be 78 in November and my uncle Calvin 73 in October. To be there with them and have a place we all can use and enjoy … it gives me a good feeling.”

The birthday bunch

Actress Sheila MacRae is 83. Actor Gordon Clapp (“NYPD Blue”) is 59. Actor Kevin Sorbo (“Hercules: Legendary Journeys”) is 49. Actress-writer Nia Vardalos (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”) is 45. Actor Kyle Sullivan (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 19.