Lovett, Phish stack full concert schedule

BY LARRY NAGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

As the summer pop-music concert season -- everything from a sold-out Lilith Fair to a failed Elvis revival -- fades, a fairly intriguing fall lies ahead.

n national concerts, look for Lyle Lovett to return to town for a Taft Theatre show Oct. 29. Lovers of big country extravaganzas have the Reba McEntire/Brooks & Dunn/Terri Clark/David Kersh package, slated to return to the Crown Nov. 19. Phish-heads can find their beloved jam band at the Crown Nov. 14, according to preliminary tour routing reports.

For blues fans, the place to be Nov. 18 is that unlikely juke joint known as the Aronoff Center's Procter & Gamble Hall. The House of Blues' ''Highway 61 Tour'' will bring a full slate, including Buddy Guy, who replaces Taj Mahal as the headliner. The show also features Chicago harmonica great Billy Boy Arnold and the roof-raising gospel harmonies of the Blind Boys of Alabama.

n the recording world, the busy fall season brings such long-awaited projects as Alanis Morissette's follow-up to Jagged Little Pill (Nov. 3); R. Kelly's first post-''I Can Fly'' album, R (Sept. 29); Beck's follow-up to his Grammy-winning Odelay, and the first REM album (Oct. 6) made since the departure of drummer Bill Berry.

For fans of Cincinnati music, October is the month to watch. Two of the biggest groups to emerge from the local scene are releasing major-label projects: Afghan Whigs will release its long-awaited Columbia Records debut, 1965, Oct. 15. Just seven days later, Oct. 22, it's the soulful quartet 98` with its second album for Motown, 98` and Rising.