it loads a mite slow: the STEVE EARLE ALBUMS poll

train a comin' by a good margin for me, with guitar town, i feel alright and el corazon clustered behind.

he has good tracks scattered through most of it. i admit i never bothered to listen to jerusalem or the latest one, his political folksinger thing has made him more predictable and dull (still love "f the cc"). but early on he was nashville's john cougar, and then the trio of post-incarceration albums are all pretty great. copperhead road has some of his best songs but suffers from production bloat. the hard way has "billy austin," but you can sorta tell things were heading south for him on that one.

train a comin' though has so many great songs, his and the covers, and it's one of my favorite acoustic rock'n'roll records. noisy and loose, but with some nice chops courtesy of norman blake et al. and i think "goodbye" is his best sad song, and he has a lot of good sad songs. conversely i never cared much for the mountain, the tightness of the band and bluegrass more generally doesn't suit his shagginess.

anyway, i think his latter-day npr-friendliness and pc omnipresence (i saw him read poetry once, which i don't recommend) has somewhat obscured how many great country/rock songs he's written over the years. when i saw him do an acoustic set a little while back, what struck me was how much good stuff he had to choose from.

they ask me how far into memphis, son, and where's the nearest beer
they don't even know that there's a town around here

Transcendental Blues ftw, based solely on the fact it contains "Lonelier Than This" and the title track (my two favorite Earle songs), but I'd put Train a Comin' directly behind it. The earliest stuff is nice, but I think he emerged from prison and drug use a much deeper writer.

I Feel Alright for me, one of my fav records of the 90s. There are no weak tracks: even the ones that sorta grate ("More Than I Can Do", "You're Still Standin' There") have redeeming factors (the chord change on the verse of the former, Lucinda Williams on the latter). And the great ones are great: "Hard Core Troubadour" is an awesome rocker, with a fab lyric and Fab chord changes; "Now She's Gone" and "Poor Boy" are super-slick rockabilly, which is way better than it probably sounds. I was following his story at the time, so "South Nashville Blues" still rings true. And live at the time "The Unrepentant" was fantastic, and that's what I hear when I hear the studio version.

In order:
1. I Feel Alright
2. Train a Comin' (I agree with the earlier posts)
3. El Corazon (first and last songs unbelievably classic, much weaker middle, with other high point "Here I Am" but horrible "Poison Lovers" mars the record)
4. Copperhead Road (big drop off between 3 and 4, but the title song and "Johnny Come Lately" are still great; icky treacle like "Nothing But A Child" unfortunately anticipate his future sonic downfall)
5. Guitar Town (great singles)
6. Exit O (singles not as great, otherwise sounds like Guitar Town and so I usually put it on instead)
7. The Hard Way (title track and "Billy Austin" great---though better sounding on the live record Shut Up and Die Like An .Aviator, otherwise thin)
8. Sidetracks ("Ellis Unit One" another tearjerker, and "Me And The Eagle" still sounds great)
9. The Mountain (uniformly weak songs, and the record that got me off Earle for good)
10. Early Tracks (awesome cover photo, horrid songs)

(haven't heard the recent ones, i.e. Transcendental Blues, Jerusalem, The Revolution Starts ... Now, and Washington Square Serenade)

Guitar Town is the only one I've ever liked much, even briefly. Need to get a copy of that again someday. I've really come to hate the guy's voice, though he still seems to have moments, now and then.

Though I have to admit, some of the other comments above convince me that maybe I should re-listen to some of his middle period albums someday; as with Tipsy, the Liberal Spokesperson stuff lately has really left a bad taste in my mouth. (Didn't like the FCC song, either.) I still have a feeling his stodgy vocal flatness would stand in my way, though. I've never really heard him pull off Southern Rock the way some people seem to think he does.

(Did like him okay on The Wire, though.)

guitar town by a mile, followed by exit o, followed by i feel alright, followed by copperhead road, followed by train a comin'....everything else can eat a dick str8 up

i like his voice and his singing, but i can see them being offputting. basically i think he's a country-blues singer, which is obv. different than a southern-rock singer. and his music has basically no boogie, so yeah i think southern-rock comparisons are off. otoh his couple of country-reggae stabs ("rivers of babylon," "johnny too bad") work way better than they should. not that i think he should do a whole album of that or anything.

but it's mostly about the songwriting. he borrows a lot of hooks but he borrows pretty good ones, and he's written a bunch of nice lines. "devil's right hand" is as good a classic-country lyric as anyone wrote in the late '80s. (even if i don't blame anyone who likes waylon's version better.)

"devil's right hand" is as good a classic-country lyric as anyone wrote in the late '80s. (even if i don't blame anyone who likes waylon's version better.)

Actually, Webb Wilder has pretty much the definitive version of that song (for me, at least).

guitar town is one of the best debut albums ever

I love Guitar Town but like the Mats or Husker Du I'd love it more if the production wasn't so tinny.

The middle stuff for me...

Train a Comin'
I Feel Alright
El Corazon
The Mountain

In that order, I guess. Have not heard the latest (have pretty much given up). The last decade worth of stuff became just too scattered - two or three good songs per album, but three or four embarrassingly unlistenable ones. Like Euler, the production on the earlier stuff turns me off too.

I love Guitar Town but like the Mats or Husker Du I'd love it more if the production wasn't so tinny.

-- Euler, Monday, March 10, 2008 5:42 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yeah i mean, there's a certain amount of stuff from the early to mid 80s where you just have to decide to deal with the production of the day...

On "Johnny Too Bad", I love both Earle's claustrophobic production (where it sounds like you're inside the bass drum, like on the Stones "Honky Tonk Women") and the tightness of the band, the V-Roys, whose first record was produced by Earle and is another of my favorites from the 90s. I agree that a reggae direction would probably have diminishing returns.

yeah i love the v-roys, the first album especially. (their live one is good too. they were a hell of a live band. they opened for him some dates on the i feel alright tour, that was a good double-bill.)

The V-Roys' second record isn't bad either, but it's spottier. But that last song is a real tearjerker. My brother tells me Scott Miller is making some cash now working some kind of comedian tour, so that's good news.

The Mountain, but he doesn't get all the credit. I'll take Guitar Town over I Feel Alright.

i forgot about the v-roys they were decent! does anyone remember the hangdogs? they had this awesome song called "monopoly on the blues"

El Corazon is the only I got into. It was the first one I listened to. I got I Feel Alright next and sounded kinda similiar but not quite as good so I didn't bother anymore.

the video for copperhead road is some kind of '80s country-metal peak.

1. I Feel Alright
2. Train a Comin'

^^^^^^ damn straight cowboy

Train a'Comin for that song and Rivers Of Babylon

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow, Jerusalem got a vote?