World Series: Home to Houston via Chicago
This Steve Earle tune has been zippin’ through my head for the entire MLB playoffs. So now that the Houston Astros have made it to the World Series, I figure I’d celebrate the moment with a very non-celebratory song: “Home to Houston”. Steve writes it from the perspective of a Texas truck driver who heads off to Iraq for a quick buck, and regrets it from the get-go. “If I ever get home to Houston alive, I won’t drive a truck anymore.”
Steve Earle: “Home to Houston” – from The Revolution Starts NowAnd to complement it (hats off to the Chicago White Sox), here’s another uplifting tune whose opening line is “I dreamed about killing you again last night and it felt alright to me.” That Jeff Tweedy, he’s a charmer…
Wilco: “Via Chicago” – from Summerteeth.
Mister Earle and his post big house blues
Sundays are for playing music that matches your end of the weekend BLAHS. This tune has been my woe-is-me companion since I discovered Steve in the mid-90’s thanks to the formerly good Phoenix radio station KZON (a station whose only saving grace these days is their 4 hours of Howard Stern every morning).
I got the chance to see Steve around that time at the now defunct Rockin Horse saloon in Scottsdale (burned to the ground I think). Steve had just completed his stint in the big house due to his recurring problems with drugs, and he was embarking on the best musical journey of his career. His first album after the drug & jail adventures was ‘Train a Comin’, released in 1995. It was an acoustic journey made up of old and new songs alike, as well as a great covers of “I’m Looking Through You”, “Rivers of Baylon”, and “Tecumseh Valley”. The highlight of the album for me though – due to my fondness for the melancholy tunes – is “Goodbye”.
Last verse:
I only miss you here every now and then
Like the soft breeze blowin up from the Caribbean
Most Novembers I break down and cry
But I can’t remember if we said goodbyeSniff. Damn Steve. I hope this tune turns someone out there on to Mr. Earle. I reckon it will.
Steve Earle: Goodbye- Check out Train a Comin on Amazon.
Et tu, Mr. Earle?
I don’t know quite what to think. In the midst of the MLB All Star Game last night, I hear the bad-ass sounds of Steve Earle permeating the airwaves… IN A CHEVY COMMERCIAL. Yes, “The Revolution Starts Now” has gone from the battlecry of those not entirely please with the current administration to the trumpeting of the new Chevy truck revolution or whatever. I – as I said, not quite sure how to feel here. Sure tons of artists have contributed music to commercials, and who’s to say I wouldn’t for that sweet almighty U.S. dollar? So who am I to really judge? But it just feels weird to think Steve Earle took a song so near and dear to his heart like that, and gave it to Chevy. BUT, by the same token, it is possible to discover cool music through commericals. Like Richard Buckner‘s “Ariel Ramirez”.
Richard Buckner: Ariel Ramirez from Since
Hanging with Bill Lyerly
Some of you return visitors may have noticed a recurring theme on Ickmusic: Steve Earle. My strong appreciation for Mr. Earle’s work has led me to some great music, through his own work, and through his association with others. One in particular is the Bill Lyerly Band. Bill Lyerly has been churning out the blues in North Carolina for over 25 years. In 1998, he released ‘Railroad Station Blues’ (Buy it here}.
On one track, he brought in the Twangtrust to produce it. The Twangtrust is Steve Earle and Ray Kennedy. The track is “Hangmen”. Steve joins in on the singing too. . . a quite catchy little number about the life of a hangman. “The hangman’s there to do his duty, the hangman never cries.”
Bonus: Virtual Reality Time
Photo credit: Greenville, NC–Photo by Ric Carter
Rich Man’s War
Here’s the video of Steve Earle‘s “Rich Man’s War,” a song from his latest album ‘The Revolution Starts Now”. It was directed by Jonathan Demme.
Steve on Amazon.
[2024 – Link no longer available, and I can’t find the video any where!]
There’s a ghost that haunts this town – Steve Earle
Steve Earle. Still a hidden gem. He’s managed to fly just enough below the radar that when I’m asked who I listen to, and one of my replies is Steve Earle, it always elicits a “hmm, haven’t heard of him”, or “what kind of music does he play?”. I can’t say country. I can’t say alt-country. Roots rocker? Singer songwriter? No, too tame. Blues, rock, country, bluegrass, just plain old American is Mr. Earle. All wrapped up tight into one opinionated, fiery sonuvabitch.
Well, after a brief prison vacation in the early 90’s, Steve has released some of the best albums I will ever own. ‘I Feel Alright’, ‘Train a Comin’, ‘El Corazon’, ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Transcendental Blues’, last year’s ‘The Revolution Starts Now’. He keeps churnin’ em out.
Anyhow, I came across this acoustic live version of “Halo ‘Round the Moon” a few years ago. It’s probably my most frequently played tune in my Steve Earle collection. It’s short, sweet, intense, sad, and beautiful. I remember seeing somewhere that this was recorded live in Sweden, but I’m not sure. If anyone knows, please let me know. He starts out with an intro about Galway Bay, the River Carrib , and the Wolfe Tone Bridge. The studio version appears on ‘Transcendental Blues’, which Steve wrote during a months-long stay in Galway. I hope someone out there enjoys it as much as I do (and the guy at the 2:06 mark who lets out a primal “EAAGGH”.
See Steve’s Official Web Site
Steve Earle Original Unofficial Site
Check out Steve’s albums on Amazon
Find out more about Steve on All Music Guide.
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