Live concert review : Steve Earle
Mar. 25th, 2018 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23I got to see one of my favorite musicians of all time Steve Earle, and as a bonus, also got to meet him.
I saw him in 1999 when he was touring with Del McCoury as part of the Mountain tour, their collaborative bluegrass project, which was awesome, but also split the setlist, though "Copperhead Road" as a bluegrass song with the McCourys was burning.
Steve has not played here since 2009. He is out touring behind the 30th year of Copperhead Road. They played the most unusual preshow music, but after a few songs, i picked it up actual, though i wonder if anyone else did - Information Society, INXS' "Need You Tonight" "Dont Worry Be Happy", Jacko's "Man in the Mirror" and "The Way You Make Me Feel", Eric Carmen's "Hungry Eyes". The theme was 1988- this was the environment that Copperhead Road came into.
The opening band doubles as part of Earle's current Dukes- The Mastersons. They were quite good- a married husband and wife couple that played alt-country/folk in the manner probably right now made most well known by the Lumineers.
The format of the show was the full Copperhead album and then the hits. I was amazed to see all of the instruments ready for the show. To be honest, i was kind of bummed for the format. I knew it meant I would hear a couple of songs that he probably wouldn't normally play. Still, I rate Copperhead around 5th on the list of his albums. "Guitar Town", his debut, is outstanding beginning to end, and his post-rehab 1-2-3 of "Train A Comin", "I Feel Alright" and "El Corazon" to me are close to perfection.
Now, the title track of course is a bonafide country classic, and "The Devils Right Hand" is pretty close to that level. Still, always sampling the record as a CD, it starts with the rockers front loaded nd then bogs down in side two with the slower songs and that 80s country radio production. I did grow a new appreciation as Earle says he considers it a two-sided album (as he still does when he records) and the first side are the political songs (and as he said, those who think he went political in the 90s weren't paying attention).
The first side is pretty great, though. The title track always rocks. "Snake Oil" is pretty great and as fitting today as back then. "Johnny Come Lately" (which he recorded with the Pogues on St Patricks Day 1987) obviously comes through live and the highlight of the first half might just be the acoustically oriented "Devils Right Hand".
Put into context (the songs that maybe explain "why I got married so many times") the B-side of the album shows Earle's Romantic side. On the disc, they sort of sound similar, but stand up in the live environment. "Once You Love" was co-written with John Mellencamps main collaborator and guitarist Larry Crane ("Keef to John's Mick) The closer "Nothing But a Child" was Earles' intent to get on the follow up to the Oak Ridge Boys best selling Christmas album (recorded like most Christmas records in July).
The rest of the night was pretty great. The setup for "Johnny Come Lately" set up well for a heavy theme into Irish folk and bluegrass- so some great fun songs like "Galway Girl", "Dixieland", "Ben McCullough" and the beautiful ballad "I'm Still in Love with you. Also his latest album came out last year- so we got the title track to "So You Wanna Be an Outlaw", "Lookin for a Woman", "The Firebreak Line", "Fixin to Die" and "The Girl on the Mountain".
Outside of that, the remaining songs came mostly from his country heyday- "Guitar Town", "The Week of Living Dangerously", "Someday", and "MY Old Friend the Blues". The one surprise was the finale of a blistering version of Hendrix's "Hey Joe".
Some great stories and banter- funny and political. The best story probably was the one he said that in 1975, at his first song to be taken seriously in Nashville, "Ben McCullough" (whose chorus is "G-dd-mn you, Ben McCullough"). Earle's producer said you can't say "G-dd-mn" in the song, and told Earle to sing anything else it would be fine. So when Earle got to the chorus, he belted out "F*ck you, Ben McCullough!". He said he regrets now that he might have got Johnny Cash to record the song back then, but he knows June would never have allowed a song near Johnny that had the word "G-dd-mn".
Earle also said a quote that he has been saying in interviews how Dylan created this job, took the air out of the room for his interviews, and now Bob doesn't have to do interviews anymore but everyone else does. Also, Earle said he's a huge baseball fan. I was shcoked to say Steve was going to be over by Merch for any one who wanted to come by.
The theater was great- a late Victorian theater for a real intimate seated experience. I bought the last good ticket since I waited around. The theater is part of a bigger house that was owned by Hoyt Sherman- Des Moines's first postmaster and a prominent banker who was named by Lincoln as paymaster with the title of Major.
Meeting Earle was exciting. It is an awkward time because I go fanboy but I also want to be respectful that i only have 30 seconds to get the picture, get the album signed and get out of the way. i did tell him I saw him in St Louis with McCoury and he said "Yes, Mississippi Nights. That was the last time I played there. (it's no longer there).
So that was pretty special moment for me.
I saw him in 1999 when he was touring with Del McCoury as part of the Mountain tour, their collaborative bluegrass project, which was awesome, but also split the setlist, though "Copperhead Road" as a bluegrass song with the McCourys was burning.
Steve has not played here since 2009. He is out touring behind the 30th year of Copperhead Road. They played the most unusual preshow music, but after a few songs, i picked it up actual, though i wonder if anyone else did - Information Society, INXS' "Need You Tonight" "Dont Worry Be Happy", Jacko's "Man in the Mirror" and "The Way You Make Me Feel", Eric Carmen's "Hungry Eyes". The theme was 1988- this was the environment that Copperhead Road came into.
The opening band doubles as part of Earle's current Dukes- The Mastersons. They were quite good- a married husband and wife couple that played alt-country/folk in the manner probably right now made most well known by the Lumineers.
The format of the show was the full Copperhead album and then the hits. I was amazed to see all of the instruments ready for the show. To be honest, i was kind of bummed for the format. I knew it meant I would hear a couple of songs that he probably wouldn't normally play. Still, I rate Copperhead around 5th on the list of his albums. "Guitar Town", his debut, is outstanding beginning to end, and his post-rehab 1-2-3 of "Train A Comin", "I Feel Alright" and "El Corazon" to me are close to perfection.
Now, the title track of course is a bonafide country classic, and "The Devils Right Hand" is pretty close to that level. Still, always sampling the record as a CD, it starts with the rockers front loaded nd then bogs down in side two with the slower songs and that 80s country radio production. I did grow a new appreciation as Earle says he considers it a two-sided album (as he still does when he records) and the first side are the political songs (and as he said, those who think he went political in the 90s weren't paying attention).
The first side is pretty great, though. The title track always rocks. "Snake Oil" is pretty great and as fitting today as back then. "Johnny Come Lately" (which he recorded with the Pogues on St Patricks Day 1987) obviously comes through live and the highlight of the first half might just be the acoustically oriented "Devils Right Hand".
Put into context (the songs that maybe explain "why I got married so many times") the B-side of the album shows Earle's Romantic side. On the disc, they sort of sound similar, but stand up in the live environment. "Once You Love" was co-written with John Mellencamps main collaborator and guitarist Larry Crane ("Keef to John's Mick) The closer "Nothing But a Child" was Earles' intent to get on the follow up to the Oak Ridge Boys best selling Christmas album (recorded like most Christmas records in July).
The rest of the night was pretty great. The setup for "Johnny Come Lately" set up well for a heavy theme into Irish folk and bluegrass- so some great fun songs like "Galway Girl", "Dixieland", "Ben McCullough" and the beautiful ballad "I'm Still in Love with you. Also his latest album came out last year- so we got the title track to "So You Wanna Be an Outlaw", "Lookin for a Woman", "The Firebreak Line", "Fixin to Die" and "The Girl on the Mountain".
Outside of that, the remaining songs came mostly from his country heyday- "Guitar Town", "The Week of Living Dangerously", "Someday", and "MY Old Friend the Blues". The one surprise was the finale of a blistering version of Hendrix's "Hey Joe".
Some great stories and banter- funny and political. The best story probably was the one he said that in 1975, at his first song to be taken seriously in Nashville, "Ben McCullough" (whose chorus is "G-dd-mn you, Ben McCullough"). Earle's producer said you can't say "G-dd-mn" in the song, and told Earle to sing anything else it would be fine. So when Earle got to the chorus, he belted out "F*ck you, Ben McCullough!". He said he regrets now that he might have got Johnny Cash to record the song back then, but he knows June would never have allowed a song near Johnny that had the word "G-dd-mn".
Earle also said a quote that he has been saying in interviews how Dylan created this job, took the air out of the room for his interviews, and now Bob doesn't have to do interviews anymore but everyone else does. Also, Earle said he's a huge baseball fan. I was shcoked to say Steve was going to be over by Merch for any one who wanted to come by.
The theater was great- a late Victorian theater for a real intimate seated experience. I bought the last good ticket since I waited around. The theater is part of a bigger house that was owned by Hoyt Sherman- Des Moines's first postmaster and a prominent banker who was named by Lincoln as paymaster with the title of Major.
Meeting Earle was exciting. It is an awkward time because I go fanboy but I also want to be respectful that i only have 30 seconds to get the picture, get the album signed and get out of the way. i did tell him I saw him in St Louis with McCoury and he said "Yes, Mississippi Nights. That was the last time I played there. (it's no longer there).
So that was pretty special moment for me.
