• Roots Rock

    Steve Earle News: Washington Square Serenade

    Thanks to Jeffro for alerting us that New West Records has announced details of Steve Earle’s first record with the label. Due September 25th, and titled Washington Square Serenade, it will feature the CD and a bonus DVD of Steve taking us on a walking tour of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, as well as some documentary footage.

    Steve’s wife Allison Moorer duets with him on a tune, and Brazilian / NYC group Forro in the Dark joins him on “City of Immigrants”.

    The track list is as follows. As you’ll see, he gives me a shout out on this album with “Steve’s Hammer (for Pete)”. ‘Bout time!

    Track List:
    “Tennessee Blues”
    “Down Here Below”
    “Satellite Radio”
    “City of Immigrants”
    “Sparkle and Shine”
    “Come Home to Me”
    “Jericho Road”
    “Oxycontin Blues”
    “Red Is the Color”
    “Steve’s Hammer (For Pete)”
    “Days Aren’t Long Enough”
    “Way Down in the Hole”

    Steve fans, mark your calendars for September 25th. Speaking of Steve and September, I’ll be catching Steve at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Yiieeahh…

  • Miscellaneous

    Sunday Mini-Ick-Mix-Ness

    A trip through a variety of tunes today…
    To commemorate Paris Hilton’s first trip to the slammer, we start off with …

    Steve Earle and the V-Roys – InThe Jailhouse Now – from Songs of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute

    One of those songs that is perpetually in my head. “Sunday night and it’s half past nine…”

    Bruce Cockburn – Northern Lights – from Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws

    Heard this on the radio a few days ago for the first time in years. Excellent tune, great lyrics… it’s Cracker…

    Cracker – Euro-Trash Girl- from Greatest Hits Redux

    Upon hearing this song for the first time, my three year old daughter proclaimed: “This song scares me daddy”. Daddy turned it off. Another Italian film soundtrack that I heard on David Johansen’s Mansion of Fun.

    Franco Ferrara & Goffredo Petrassi – Per Cercare Consolazione – from Cronaca Familiare (Score)

    An old school joint from Masta Ace…

    Masta Ace – Born to Roll- from Sittin’ on Chrome

    Citizen CopeSideways (mp3) – from The Clarence Greenwood Recordings

  • photo of Steve Earle
    Roots Rock

    Steve Earle on Bob Harris Country

    I have to get a hold of one of those shirts.

    From the 2000 Transcendental Blues Tour, here’s a nice set from Coventry, England. It’s part of a BBC radio broadcast called Bob Harris Country. A nice snapshot of the opening set list at the time. Take it Dukes…

    Steve Earle and the Dukes
    “Bob Harris Country”
    Warwick University
    Coventry, UK
    May 25th, 2000

    Download the ZIP of the show.

    Here’s a taste:

    “Galway Girl”

    01. Transcendental Blues
    02. Everyone’s In Love With You
    03. Another Town
    04. I Can Wait
    05. Steve’s Last Ramble
    06. I Feel Alright
    07. Lonelier Than This
    08. I Don’t Want To Lose You Yet
    09. The Galway Girl
    10. Copperhead Road
    11. South Nashville Blues
    12. All Of My Life
    13. The Unrepentant

    Buy Transcendental Blues.

    Photo credit: Unknown / TBD.

  • Acoustic

    New Steve Earle: Goodbye Guitar Town

    Steve Earle

    Sunset in my mirror
    Pedal on the floor
    Bound for New York City
    And I won’t back no more

    And so begins Steve Earle‘s new tune, “Goodbye Guitar Town”. He dropped into Austin’s KUT radio station last week for a nice interview and a couple of acoustic tunes, including this new one. Steve is back to his acoustic Townes Van Zandt-like, finger-pickin’ form with this tune. He’s called New York City’s Greenwich Village home for a few years now, and as he sings about in this song, NYC is home.

    Listening to the interview got me excited about the new album (his first release for New West Records). He’s working with John King, who makes up half of the Dust Brothers (Beck, Beastie Boys). Steve said he’s “tested positive for Pro Tools“, which is a departure for him, and he’s working exclusively with John, vs. a band.

    So there’s a lot to look forward to as a Steve Earle fan. Check out the full 38 minute interview here on the KUT Site.

    Steve Earle: Goodbye Guitar Town (mp3) – live in studio, KUT Austin

    Buy Steve Earle music:

  • Roots Rock

    Steve Earle at Tradewinds, Part Deux

    Steve Earle

    “They’ll let anybody in here!” – Steve Earle, as The Boss joins him on stage

    Well who do you think was lurking in the crowd that fateful New Jersey night? The Boss joined Steve and the Dukes for the last six songs of the evening. That’s gotta be one of the greatest things about being a Springsteen fan in New Jersey. You never know when he’ll materialize.

    Well materialize he did this night in 1998. It’s another spirited set by Steve and the Dukes, and when the Boss joins, they rip into a Carl Perkins classic, a couple of Stones tunes, and a few Steve tunes. Bruce pretty much sticks to his rule of not stealing the spotlight, but he does take a verse of “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”, and how cool is it to hear him sing background on “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied” and the Stones tunes? Right. Very cool.

    Steve Earle & the Dukes
    February 6, 1998
    Sea Bright, NJ

    Part Two [ZIP]

    The Other Side Of Town
    Somewhere Out There
    Billy Austin
    The Devil’s Right Hand
    Nothin’ But You
    All My Tears (w/ Julie Miller)
    Goodbye
    Johnny Too Bad (Slickers cover)
    N.Y.C.
    The Unrepentant
    Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby (Carl Perkins cover w/ Bruce Springsteen)
    Sweet Virginia (Rolling Stones cover w/ Bruce Springsteen)
    Guitar Town (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
    I Ain’t Never Satisfied (w/ Bruce Springsteen)
    Dead Flowers (Rolling Stones w/ Bruce Springsteen)
    Johnny Come Lately (w/ Bruce Springsteen)

    One interesting omission from the night was Bruce’s “State Trooper”, which Steve plays quite a bit in his shows. “New Jersey turnpike, riding on a wet night…” would’ve fit right in.

  • Roots Rock

    Steve Earle at Tradewinds, Part 1

    Steve Earle

    I haven’t posted about my favorite left-wing Tennessee via Mexico via East Texas outlaw in a while. Steve Earle hasn’t been quiet lately though. He’s a modern-day renaissance man: musician, poet, protester, playwright, you name it. He jokes that he has to keep himself that busy to keep him sober. He wasn’t doing so good there for a while (in the late 80’s and early 90’s). Well, since he got sober, and inspiration took over, Steve has been hitting us hard with some great albums: I Feel Alright, Train a Comin’, El Corazon, Jerusalem, among others. In ’98, Steve was on tour supporting one of my personal favorites, El Corazon (a tour that didn’t bring him to Phoenix, so I flew my butt to Montrose, Colorado to see him – well, actually my brother flew me).

    This is a special show, folks. The locale is Tradewinds in Sea Bright, New Jersey. It’s February 6, 1998, and a certain someone is lurking in the audience watching this great show. I’ll give you part one here. In part two later this week, this certain someone hits the stage with Mr. Earle to fully complete roof tearage off the sucker.

    Steve Earle & the Dukes
    February 6, 1998
    Sea Bright, NJ

    Part One [ZIP]  ♦ [Part two here]

    Christmas In Washington
    Here I Am
    Taneytown
    Hardcore Troubador
    My Old Friend The Blues
    Someday
    If You Fall
    Mystery Train Part II
    You Know The Rest
    Windfall (Son Volt cover)
    Copperhead Road
    Telephone Road
    More Than I Can Do
    Now She’s Gone
    Ft. Worth Blues
    I Feel Alright
    Poison Lovers

    In recent Steve Earle news, he signed with New West Records recently. I’m looking forward to good things in ’07 from ol’ Steve.

  • Country,  Roots Rock

    Allison Moorer meets Mr. Earle

    allison moorer and steve earle

    I have two words for Steve Earle: You dog!! He must have the charms of Casanova, because he continues to seduce the ladies into taking his hand in marriage. His latest – sixth, seventh, eighth? – bride is none other than the lovely and very talented Allison Moorer. I’m not privy to the story behind their courtship, but they spent Steve’s last tour together with Allison in the opening slot. Steve also produced Allison’s latest release, ‘Getting Somewhere’, which was released last Tuesday (June 13) on Sugar Hill Records.

    cover

    From the the three tracks I’ve heard, it certainly has that Earle / Twangtrust vibe to it, and – well, I eat that stuff right up like a pint of Cherry Garcia. You certainly hear it on “Fairweather”, which was co-written by Earle. Driving pounding drums, those crunchy guitar riffs…

    allison moorer

    Allison made quite a splash in 1998, when her song “A Soft Place to Fall” was included on the soundtrack to ‘The Horse Whisperer’ (one of the best soundtracks I own). That same year, her debut, ‘Alabama Song’ was released on MCA Records.

    Allison and her older sister, Shelby Lynne (also a country-esque singer/songwriter) overcame quite a tragic event in their childhood to find success in the Nashville music scene. When they were both teenagers, their alcoholic father shot and killed their mother in the driveway of their Alabama home, and then turned the gun on himself – all while Shelby and Allison looked on. Shelby, who was 17 at the time, raised Allison for the remaining years of her adolescence. Sickening and tragic to even comprehend, but Shelby and Allison have persevered.

    What I like about Allison (and her sister) are their refusal to bow down to the Nashville Country Machine, which churns out the cookie cutter singers as products, ruled by the almighty dollar (which country radio eats right up). I like the Nashville rebels, and Allison’s link-up with Steve Earle (in the musical and poetic sense) confirms what I knew I liked about her: artistic integrity and a perpetual middle finger to the “system” (even though Steve Earle sold “The Revolution Starts Now” to a Chevy commercial, but I choose to overlook that).

    So take a listen to some Allison Moorer music. Here’s the song from the ‘Horse Whisperer’…

    Allison Moorer: A Soft Place to Fall (mp3) – from The Soundtrack to the Horse Whisperer.

    And here’s some RealPlayer goodness from her latest album, ‘Getting Somewhere’, her second release on Sugar Hill Records.

    Allison Moorer: Fairweather (rm) | New Year’s Day (rm) | How She Does It (rm) – RealPlayer is required for these three

  • Rock

    Marah and Steve Earle play the TLA

    One of the best concert weeks of my life was seeing Steve Earle play the West Hollywood House of Blues in the summer of 2000 with Marah as their opening act. A week later, I saw Marah at the small, sweat soaked Long Wongs in Tempe, AZ. Marah was hitting the road behind their great album ‘Kids in Philly’, which was released on Steve’s label, E Squared.


    Thanks to Steve Earle, I became a big Marah fan, and remain so today (just saw them as they came through Phoenix in January).

    In October of 1999, it was Marah’s coming out of sorts, as they joined Steve at a benefit for the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, playing the Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, PA.

    Marah w/ Steve Earle
    Theatre of Living Arts, Philadelphia PA
    October 16th, 1999

    Intro by Steve Earle / Christian Street/ Head On
    Catfisherman
    Where The Dark Horses Go
    Sleepwalk > Reservation Girl
    My Heart Is The Bums On The Street
    Point Breeze
    The History Of Where Someone Has Been Killed
    Faraway You
    I Feel Alright*
    Transcendental Blues*
    State Trooper* [a couple of skips near the beginning.. sorry!]
    West Nashville Boogie*
    Ohio*
    (* w/ Steve Earle)

    Bonus: Marah: Livin on the Road (mp3)

  • Roots Rock

    Malo, Flaco and Earle

    I love the Mavericks. Love the sound of lead singer Raul Malo’s voice. “All You Ever Do is Bring Me Down” rose out of my mp3 shuffle today. Tex-Mex superstar accordionist Flaco Jimenez adds his signature playing to the tune.

    The Mavericks: All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down (mp3) – from The Definitive Collection

    That led me to listen to Flaco’s early 90’s group the Texas Tornados. The group also consisted of Freddy Fender, Doug Sahm, and Augie Meyers.

    Texas Tornados: Adios Mexico (mp3) – from The Best of the Texas Tornados

    That song led me, for obvious reasons (you’ll know when you hear both tunes), to Steve Earle. If you take Adios Mexico’s traditional Tex-Mex accordion riff, strap a NASA booster rocker to it, and turn the amp up to 11, you get this:

    Steve Earle: What’s a Simple Man To Do (mp3) – from Jerusalem