Ich heisser Lyle. Ich bin von Texas. Ich lieber mitt Pferd.

I was fascinated to hear Lyle Lovett, at his concert with John Hiatt on Monday night, talking about going to Germany to study German. Laconic Lyle is not a man who tells you much about himself.

There's something strangely appealing about the mental image of him sitting there struggling with German grammar and reading Goethe and Thomas Mann.

So much for the myth that all cowboys are monoligual rednecks!

He was very chuffed that one of his old classmates from that time, Camilla ????(I didn't catch the surname), was in the audience.

She's now a professor at Stockholm University, so I intend to get Ulrika to track her down and cross examine her on her meeting with the country superstar-to-be!