Versatile Texas troubadour Lyle Lovett has recorded duets with Al Green, Rickie Lee Jones, Randy Newman and Shawn Colvin, among others. Lovett, who performs May 8 at the Pacer benefit at the Minneapolis Convention Center, recently duetted in concert with Kat Edmonson, his favorite new Texas singer. Lovett said of Edmonson:

"She's a really charming jazz singer. She books herself, she does all her own business, she does get out of Austin [Texas] occasionally. She makes her living doing gigs of primarily standards, but she writes as well, and she has a really nice voice. "I invited her to sing with me when we played Austin. We did 'Baby, It's Cold Outside,' and she pulled me through it. And I saw her the Sunday before last at a Nobelity Project fundraiser where they honored Willie Nelson and she did a Willie song, 'It Will Always Be,' and just stopped the crowd."

JON BREAM