The Gobblers Knob

This is Earle, perhaps he is entering a new stage with that beard…

One of our countries greatest writers, singers, and depending on who you ask, activists, is about to release a new album after a 3 year wait.  Steve Earle is back on Sept. 25.  I’ll spare you the trite, cliche ridden synopsis on what this new album represents or why he went in a more folksy, earthy direction, you’ll get plenty of that from magazines and blogs that think they are the only reviewer that’ll mention Earle’s politics, new marriage, move to NYC and busy non-music schedule.  What I’d like to share with you, my sweet and somewhat dirty reader, are what I call the “Three Stages of Earle.“  They are as follows:

• “Heartland Hillbilly Stage” - From the release of Guitar Town and Exit O, to the revelation of Copperhead Road, Earle went against the grain of the “anti-hillbilly” movement in Nashville of the mid-80’s.  His tales of life on the road, pistols, moonshine, dreams of “Someday” and “Hillbilly Highways” flew in the face of the pop-leaning, slickly arranged product that radio was playing at the time (sound familiar?).  “Guitar Town” didn’t have a chorus, “Hillybilly Highway” supposedly made country people look more backwards than they wanted to, and “Copperhead Road” was too rockin’, talked about pot, and also didn’t have that chorus hook that was usually mandatory for a song to see the light of the FM day.  Regardless of the trends going against him, Earle, along with Lyle Lovett and Dwight Yoakam headed a resurgence of artists that could succeed without conforming, as well as honoring their influences. Earle would soon fall victim to addiction and find himself in jail (enough has been said of that, hasn’t it?).  A couple of off-the-mark releases (Train a Comin’ anyone) would usher him into his next phase of brilliance.
• “Bluegrass Rehab Rocker stage” - In what is easily Earle’s most prolific and creatively brilliant stage, he picks up where he left off (before jail) and defies convention and genre classification even further.  With the releases of I Feel Alright (’96), El Corazon (’97), the Bluegrass collabo. The Montain (’99), and ending the millenium with Transcendental Blues (2000), Earle reinforced his grip on his title as one of the world’s great singer/songwriters. Each of these albums contained a rainbow of tempos, themes, and styles.  Straight-ahead rock was prevelant in songs like “Hardcore Troubadour,” “Taneytown,” “Poison Lover,” and “Transcendental Blues”.  His typical melange of country meeting rock was evident in the tracks “You’re Still Standing There” (the awesome duet with frequent collaborator Lucinda Williams) and “Telephone Road”.  What set these albums apart was Earle going way back in his musical education and brushing up on his Bluegrass pickin’.  Earle’s days playing in a bluegrass band occurred even before his days of hanging with Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark.  High-Lonesome cuts such as “I Still Carry You Around” and “Galway Girl” gave Earle a chance to do a little grinnin’ with his pickin’.  The marriage of the mandolin strings enveloping the nasaly tone of Earle was a bond that would beyond a random cut an album here and there.  In 1999 Earle teamed with Bluegrass legend Del McCoury to produce The Mountain.  On CD, the blending of talents seemed to work perfectly, however, reports indicate that the personalities of Earle and McCoury didn’t mesh as well.  Thankfully, the album produced some solid sounds and the track “Harlan Man”, where Earle declares “I’m a Union Man“ foreshadows the left-leaning ideologies that Earle would later promote and gain recognition for, giving him a second career as a liberal spokesman.
• “Hardcore Protesting Troubadour Stage” - With the 2002 release of Jerusalem, Earle walks defiantly into the territory of talk-show subject instead of talk-show musical guest.  With the ballad “John Walker’s Blues,”, a tale through the eyes of the infamous “American Taliban,”, Earle was called names and cursed for sympathizing with someone considered evil in a post-9/11 climate.  The title track, “Jerusalem” was a classic country rocker in the vein of “Hardcore Troubadour,” complete with harmonica and a soaring chorus.  The songs subject matter, concerning history’s countless conflicts in the Middle East, was what made this yet another hot-button for the Bill O’ Limbaughs that attempted (unsuccessfully, in my opinion) to be “fair and balanced.”.  Earle, feeling the burden of helping abolish the death penalty, continued to stretch his piss-people-off-and-make-my-point legs with the release of The Revolution Starts Now, his anti-Bush, anti-Iraq War collection of stories (”Home to Houston” & “The Gringo’s Tale”), declarations of love for Condi Rice (”Condi Condi”), and declarations of hatred for other governement fixtures (”F the CC”), along with the plea for people to rise up (”The Revolution Starts Now”).  In earlier songs that shared a message of a political nature, Earle conveyed that message through the guise of telling a story, trying to show the other, voiceless side.  This album is Earle’s middle finger being held directly in front of the White House doors.  The upcoming release, “Washington Square,” kicks off with Earle returning more to the protest-through-stories-of-other-people in the form of “City of Immigrants.”  This is billed as a love song to Earle’s new hometown of NYC, and the past power of folk music to bring people and thoughts together for the betterment of society.  The track listing seems to contain titles that mirror past albums such as El Corozon and Transcendental Blues, yet we have been told to expect a folksier, more acoustic vibe as compared to those albums.

Many of you who consider yourselves “Earle Afficionados” may disagree with these stages and phases.  You could have a point if you take exception to me trying to categorize a body of work that has purposely avoided categorization.  If that’s your beef with this post, ok, you got me…..