Guitar Town – Steve Earle
@threespires has expressed surprise that the nominated album isn’t
Copperhead Road, and
@OB1 has said that he had this down as a possible (as did I). That should tell you what a big deal Steve Earle is to some on this thread, and
Copperhead Road is so good that it even made number 412 in Colin Larkin’s list.
But instead, we are listening to Earle’s first album,
Guitar Town, which is fine by me. Introduced to his music in 1988 by my girlfriend at the time, I bought this album and the follow-up,
Exit 0 early in the year, bought
Copperhead Road when it came out and then got to see him in concert at The International later in the same year. So musically, 1988 was the year of Steve Earle for me.
What I am concerned about with this pick is that people will listen and just hear typical country music. The production is a bit thinner than what would come later but the way Steve Earle sings, the quality of his songs shine through. So, I see this as a useful marker of where he started – the whole point of the New Country genre was to leave the glitzy pop polish and sequined outfits behind, and on this album, he certainly does that.
Let’s start with the best songs. The album kicks off with “Guitar Town”, a chipper little number about a guy in a band, and “Someday” is a song about a young guy working a dead-end gas station job and wanting to leave town and is, as AllMusic states, the best Springsteen song that the Boss didn’t write.
“Good Ol’ Boy” sees the protagonist battling 80s Reaganomics, with lyrics like
"I got a job but it ain't nearly enough" and
"I was born in the land of plenty now there ain't enough", Steve Earle manages to match his powerful lyrics with a muscular band sound.
Elsewhere, as Mancitydoogle says, "Little Rock 'n' Roller" takes on extra poignancy with the recent death of Earle’s son, Justin. When he sings
“I know there's an angel just for rock 'n' rollers watchin' over you and your daddy tonight", it turns out to be true for the father who survived prison and a heroin/cocaine addiction, but sadly not for his son.
"My Old Friend the Blues" is a nicely played song that was later covered by The Proclaimers. I’ve always enjoyed the upbeat "Goodbye's All We've Got Left" and "Hillbilly Highway" but from memory, the album tailed off after “Someday”. However, listening again this morning, it’s apparent how good songs like “Fearless Heart” and “Down The Road” are, and only “Think It Over” sounds like some old country pastiche.
I understand why
@Mancitydoogle picked this album; it was the one that got him into country music and of course it was Earle’s major label debut. But the fact is that good as this album is, it didn’t represent where he eventually took the music and, in my opinion, his best albums are
Copperhead Road,
The Hard Way and
I Feel Alright. On these albums, the guitars truly buzz and are frequently joined by mandolins and other eclectic instruments. There are some fantastic songs on his first two albums, but later on his band’s playing, the production and the arrangements lifted him to another level.
8/10
