On the Shelf 96: Steve Earle
Aug. 13th, 2013 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Steve Earle had an amazing run of albums in the 1990s and early 2000s that stand with any rock artist.
Recent years have been less consistent. Like Dylan or any artist with 20 plus years of recording, Earle seemed to have a bit of a tough transition on moving to the AARP years. 2009's Townes was a tribute to a friend and mentor, but felt like a vanity project.
2007's Washington Square Serenade and 2011's I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive were ambitious, but patchy. the perfect album for the MP3 age, when you could buy a couple of tracks without purchasing the whole album. Still, it was seemingly leading somewhere as Earle was blending in certain elements of World Music, and specifically strongly trying to emulate the culture of New york and New Orleans.
It shouldn't be a surprise that Earle would find his way back, and he does with 2013's The Low Highway, an album that is his best in some time.
There's a rocker drug tune in the model of "Copperhead Road" and "Oxycontin Blues" which ultimately falls short (though could be a searing live song) and "Burnin' it Down" takes on Wal-Mart as its arson victim. "Burnin'" is memorable (and pretty decent) but it's the Cajun-influenced songs that are the best. There's the downbeat "After Mardi gras", ""Love's Going Blow My Way" a catchy tune that shows what Earle can do well, and "Warren Hellman's Banjo" which is country resembling nothing on country music radio, but old blues and banjo.
"Invincible" would be a hit single- slick and anthemic, but I really can't remember a song like it being played on the radio since Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia". "21st Century Blues" and the weepy clsoer "Remember Me" follow in the same vein. They might sound like songs you thought you had heard Earle perform before, but they are song.
The variety and the strengths of songs really makes this a record to write about. album of the year candidate surely.
Recent years have been less consistent. Like Dylan or any artist with 20 plus years of recording, Earle seemed to have a bit of a tough transition on moving to the AARP years. 2009's Townes was a tribute to a friend and mentor, but felt like a vanity project.
2007's Washington Square Serenade and 2011's I'll Never Get Out of this World Alive were ambitious, but patchy. the perfect album for the MP3 age, when you could buy a couple of tracks without purchasing the whole album. Still, it was seemingly leading somewhere as Earle was blending in certain elements of World Music, and specifically strongly trying to emulate the culture of New york and New Orleans.
It shouldn't be a surprise that Earle would find his way back, and he does with 2013's The Low Highway, an album that is his best in some time.
There's a rocker drug tune in the model of "Copperhead Road" and "Oxycontin Blues" which ultimately falls short (though could be a searing live song) and "Burnin' it Down" takes on Wal-Mart as its arson victim. "Burnin'" is memorable (and pretty decent) but it's the Cajun-influenced songs that are the best. There's the downbeat "After Mardi gras", ""Love's Going Blow My Way" a catchy tune that shows what Earle can do well, and "Warren Hellman's Banjo" which is country resembling nothing on country music radio, but old blues and banjo.
"Invincible" would be a hit single- slick and anthemic, but I really can't remember a song like it being played on the radio since Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia". "21st Century Blues" and the weepy clsoer "Remember Me" follow in the same vein. They might sound like songs you thought you had heard Earle perform before, but they are song.
The variety and the strengths of songs really makes this a record to write about. album of the year candidate surely.
