Townes Steve Earle Artist

In his brief liner sketch on this album of {|Townes Van Zandt|} covers, songwriter {|Steve Earle|} writes: I always read everything {|Townes|} told me to read. All of us did; we who followed him around, or simply bided our time in places along his mi... Read more

In his brief liner sketch on this album of {|Townes Van Zandt|} covers, songwriter {|Steve Earle|} writes: I always read everything {|Townes|} told me to read. All of us did; we who followed him around, or simply bided our time in places along his migratory path, for we were indeed a cult, in the strictest sense of the word, with {|Townes|} at its ever shifting center. While what it was he read isn't worth spoiling here, it's the last part of that long sentence that really matters. {|Van Zandt|} inspired a cult, and an even bigger list of pale imitators. {|Earle|} may lionize the man and the artist (hence the tribute record), and may have even begun as an imitator, but he became something else entirely -- an iconoclastic (and iconic) artist and producer in his own right who can interpret these songs as such. {|Van Zandt|} may have indeed been {|Earle|}'s schoolmaster, but it's {|Earle|} who does {|Van Zandt|}'s artistic legend justice in these 15 diverse, yet stripped down performances of his songs. Many of the choices are obvious: {|Pancho and Lefty,|} {|To Live Is to Fly,|} {|White Freightliner Blues,|} {|Delta Momma Blues,|}and {|Don't Take It Too Bad|} among them. Some would be less so, save for an artist of {|Earle|}'s particular vision and world bent: {|Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold,|} {|Rake,|} {|Marie,|} {|Colorado Girl,|} and {|(Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria.|} That said, none of these arrangements are predictable, and yet all of them work. {|Earle|}'s approach is very basic with some interesting twists and turns. Acoustic guitars, upright basses, mandolin, Dobro, banjo, fiddle, and mandola sit alongside electric guitars (thanks to {|Rage Against the Machine|}'s {|Tom Morello|}) and basses, harmonium, and effects. The distorted blues harp and hand percussion on {|Where I Lead Me,|} is an excellent touch, but the megaphone vocals, ambient and feedback noise, and drum loops and electric guitar crunch on {|Lungs|} make it sound more like {|Black 47|} covering {|Van Zandt|}. The reverb and loops on {|Loretta|} juxtapose beautifully against the acoustic guitars and the fiddle. The version of {|Marie|} is less harrowing than its author's; it feels more third-person narrative than first-person horror story -- thank goodness. {|White Freightliner Blues|} captures the free-in-the-wind bluegrass nature {|Van Zandt|} intended, perhaps more so than his own world-weary delivery, thanks in large part to {|Tim O'Brien|}'s mandolin, {|Darrell Scott|}'s banjo, and {|Shad Cobb|}'s fiddle. {|Earle|} would have had a hard time blowing this record. Certainly, he's closer than most to the material as he was to the man, but more than that he's a great songwriter and an avid folk music enthusiast. He understands lineages and the way the tales get told matter in order for them to live on. That's the easy part; the more mercurial thing is how well he succeeded. {|Earle|} made {|Townes|}' songs seem like an extension of his own last album, 2007's {|Washington Square Serenade|}. The same anything-goes-attitude, the adherence to all kinds of folk music, whether it's from across oceans, terrains, or alleyways, whether its roots are rural or urban, permeates this recording, making it an {|Earle|} record most of all; and that is about as fitting a tribute as there is to {|Van Zandt|}. ~ Thom Jurek Less