STEVE EARLE

'Steve Earle' (born Stephen Fain Earle January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, well known for his rock and country music, as well as for his political views. He is also a published writer, a political activist and has written and directed a play. In his early career, he was seen as a saviour of country music and labeled by some as the "new Bruce Springsteen". In the later part of his career, after troubles with the law and drug addiction and due to his uncompromising viewpoints, he has become known as "the hardcore troubadour".

Contents

Biography

Musical career

Politics

Awards

Collaborations

Source

Samples

Songwriting for other artists

Discography

Studio albums

Compilations of Non-Album tracks

Live albums

'Best of' Compilations

Video/DVD

Singles

External links

References

Biography

Stephen Fain Earle was born on January 17, 1955 at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. Legend has it that a box of Texas dirt, sent by his grandfather, was brought into the delivery room, so that it could be said that the first soil Earle's feet ever touched was Texas, although this is not reported by any significant source to which one could document this incident.
He was the eldest son of Jack Earle, an air traffic controller, and Barbara Earle. Although his parents moved around the U.S. often during his childhood, he spent several of his formative years in Schertz, Texas. He dropped out of school in the 8th grade to move to Houston, Texas and learn more about the music business. One summer evening after seeing a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, Earle went backstage and was given the advice of his life. A story that Earle repeats to this day is that "[Ronnie] Van Zant took his necklace off and put around my neck and said, 'Boy, if you work hard enough and believe in yourself, then you too can become a rock star someday.'" This advice was something that would turn out to be true, as Steve released his first album, Guitar Town in 1986. His sister, Stacey Earle, is a musician herself, having toured with Steve in the 1990s and singing on the song "When I Fall" on Steve's 2000 album "Transcendental Blues".
Earle has been married seven times, including twice to the same woman. His wives were Sandra (Sandy) Henderson, Cynthia Dunn, Carol Hunter (with whom he had his first child, Justin), Lou-Anne Gill (with whom he had a second son, Ian), Maria Teresa Ensenat, Lou-Anne Gill a second time, and finally in 2005, singer-songwriter Allison Moorer. He also has a daughter. His first son, Justin Townes Earle, was named for Townes Van Zandt.

Musical career

In 1975, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he met and worked with fellow Texans Guy Clark and his wife Susanna. Guy was instrumental in Steve being employed as a songwriter by the Sunburry Dunbar publishing division of RCA. Steve did backing vocals on Guy Clark's "Desperados Waiting For A Train" together with Emmylou Harris on Clark's first album "Old No 1".
Despite his early success as a songwriter, it was not until 1981 that he achieved a top ten cut with "When You Fall in Love", which was recorded by Johnny Lee.
His early work as a recorded performer was in the rockabilly style, and can be heard on the "Early Years" album. He had to wait until 1986, though, before his first proper album, "Guitar Town", was released. It was a critical success and sold over 300,000 copies. The follow-up albums "Exit 0" and "Copperhead Road" the video for which was directed by Tony van den Ende, built on this success.
Earle had been a drug user since an early age, and was addicted to heroin for many years. By the time of his 1990 album "The Hard Way", it started to become clear that the drugs were seriously affecting him. In 1993, his drug problems resulted in him effectively stopping performing and recording for two years, a period he refers to as his "vacation in the ghetto". He eventually ended up in jail on drug and firearms charges. Kicking the drug habit while in jail, Earle came out a new man and released two albums within 18 months of his release in late 1994. His comeback album, the acoustic ''Train A Comin', was nominated for the "Best Contemporary Folk Album" Grammy Award in 1996.
Earle's "second, post-jail musical career" has been noticeably more musically diverse than his early work. Since setting up his own record label, he has been able to follow his own artistic direction, rather than being constrained by the Nashville country pop-rock sound. This has led to experimentation with a range of styles from country and bluegrass music to folk and hard rock music. He maintained a strict work ethic. Several albums have been released since, as well as a book of haiku and a collection of short stories called ''Doghouse Roses''. He also wrote and directed a play about the death penalty. Earle also tours often, playing over 200 shows per year. His concerts tend to be either solo acoustic shows or ensemble affairs with one of his two backing bands, the Dukes or the Bluegrass Dukes.
Earle appeared as a recovering drug addict named Walon in two episode of the first season the the HBO series "The Wire". He addresses a 12-step-type meeting with an account of how he lost everything to addiction:"I pawned my bike, my pickup truck, a national steel guitar, lost a good wife, a bad girlfriend, and the respect of anyone who ever lent me money." He has reprised the role occasionally in subsequent seasons.
Earle is the subject of a documentary film entitled ''Just an American Boy'', directed by Amos Poe, which explores his political views as well as his music. In 2005, he caused consternation among his fans by allowing the song "The Revolution Starts Now" to be used by General Motors in a TV advertisement for pick-up trucks.
Earle is also the subject of an acclaimed biography, ''Steve Earle: Fearless Heart, Outlaw Poet'', by the noted New York-based music writer David McGee.
In 2006, several Steve Earle songs were featured in the movie Talladega Nights: "Valentine's Day", "Hard-Core Troubadour" and "I Feel Alright".
In 2007, Earle's song, "Someday" off his 1986 hit record, Guitar Town was featured the movie Bridge to Terabithia.

Politics

Since early in his career, Earle has been involved in a number of political causes. In his first public performances, Earle was unable to play in bars due to his age, and took to playing in coffeehouses alongside anti-Vietnam War campaigners. These experiences had a strong effect on Earle, who later campaigned against the war in Iraq.
Earle's mother took part in anti-death penalty vigils, a cause that has been taken up by Earle. He has worked to abolish the death penalty and has recorded several songs about this cause, including "Billy Austin", "Over Yonder (Jonathan's Song)" and "Ellis Unit One" (for the 1995 movie "Dead Man Walking"). (Ellis Unit, located in Huntsville, Texas, previously housed the Texas male death row, until it was moved to Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas.) He is also a regular participant in the "Concerts for a Landmine Free World", benefiting the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.
In recent years his music has been increasingly political. His 2002 album, " Jerusalem," was largely inspired by the U.S.-led War on Terrorism. This album featured Earle's "John Walker's Blues", which was about the captured American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh. The song provoked widespread outrage; many accused Earle of sympathizing with terrorists since the song was written from Lindh's perspective. Earle responded that he was simply empathizing with Lindh and in no way set out to glorify terrorism. The controversy raised Earle's profile in the media, but did not seem to damage his record sales.
His 2004 album, ''The Revolution Starts Now'', which features several songs relating to the war in Iraq, was deliberately released to coincide with the run up to the 2004 U.S. presidential election, with the aim of encouraging votes for John Kerry. Earle's contribution to the Democratic campaign was particularly notable, since country rock is traditionally associated with the right wing. It was therefore hoped that it would be more likely to convert new people to Kerry than other anti-Bush musicians (such as those involved in the Rock Against Bush movement) who might be seen as preaching to the converted, as their fan bases lay in the predominantly left-wing punk rock community. The song "The Revolution Starts Now" was used in the promotion of Michael Moore's anti-war documentary film ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' and appears on the album ''Songs and Artists That Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11'', the songs for which were selected by Moore. The song also opens his weekly Sunday-night show on Air America Radio.

Awards

Steve Earle has received a total of eleven nominations for Grammy Awards.
Earle was named Country Artist of the year for 1986 by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine.
In 2004 he was given a ''Lifetime Achievement Award'' for songwriting by the UK's BBC Radio 2.
In February 2005 he received a Grammy Award for best contemporary folk album for ''The Revolution Starts Now''.

Collaborations

★ Earle co-wrote the Jason & The Scorchers song "A Bible & A Gun".

★ Sang on Jason Ringenberg's re-recording of "A Bible & A Gun" in 2002.

★ Both Copperhead Road and Johnny Come Lately were performed with The Pogues.

★ Worked with the Supersuckers, recording their song "Creepy Jackalope Eye" and his song "NYC" -1996

★ Recorded covers of Alejandro Escovedo's "Paradise" and Warren Zevon's "Reconsider Me" with Reckless Kelly, for Escovedo and Zevon tribute albums.

★ Collaborated with the Del McCoury Band on 1999's "The Mountain."

★ Duets with Lucinda Williams on ''You're still standing there''

★ Duet with Chris Hillman on ''High Fashion Queen'' for Gram Parsons tribute album, ''The Return of the Grievous Angel''

★ Duet with Siobhan Maher Kennedy on ''Poison Lovers''

★ Duet with Emmylou Harris on ''Comin' around'', ''Goodbye'', ''I remember you''.

★ Duet with Stacey Earle on ''When I Fall''.

★ Emmylou Harris also recorded her own version of ''Goodbye'' (written by Earle) for her Wrecking Ball album - Earle plays guitar and sings on this version.

★ Sheryl Crow co-wrote ''Go Amanda'', which appeared on Jerusalem.

★ Sheryl Crow sings on Steve's cover of ''Time Has Come Today'', which appeared on Sidetracks album

Source

Lauren St John, ''Hardcore Toubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle'', Fourth Estate, 2002 ISBN 1-84115-611-6

Samples

★ of "Copperhead Road" from ''Copperhead Road''

★ of "Hard Core Troubadour" from ''I Feel Alright''

Songwriting for other artists

Before Earle was signed as an artist in his own right, he was employed as a songwriter, writing songs for the likes of Carl Perkins, Vince Gill and Steve Wariner.
His song ''Mustang Wine'' was due to be recorded by Elvis Presley in 1975, but Presley did not turn up for the recording session, the song was released as a single by Carl Perkins.
He co-wrote the Patty Loveless song ''Some Blue Moons Ago''.
Since his emergence as a performer, his songs have been covered by various well known artists including Joan Baez, The Pretenders, The Proclaimers, The Highwaymen, Emmylou Harris and Johnny Cash. ^[1]

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album	Additional information
1986	''Guitar Town''
1987	''Exit 0''
1988	''Copperhead Road''
1990	''The Hard Way''
1995	''Train a Comin'''
1996	''I Feel Alright''
1997	''El Corazon''
1999	''The Mountain''	With the Del McCoury Band
2000	''Transcendental Blues''
2002	''Jerusalem''
2004	''The Revolution Starts... Now''
2007	''Washington Square Serenade''	Due out September 25th, 2007

Compilations of Non-Album tracks

Year	Album	Additional information
1987	''Early Tracks''
2002	''Side Tracks''

Live albums

Year	Album	Additional information
1992	''BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert''	Recorded 29th November 1988 at the Town & Country Club, London
1991	''Shut Up And Die Like An Aviator''
1997	''Together at the Bluebird Café''	With Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark
2003	''Just An American Boy (live)''
2004	''Live From Austin, TX''	Recorded 1986
2006	''Live at Montreux 2005''

'Best of' Compilations

Year	Album	Additional information
1993	''Essential Steve Earle''
1996	''
1999	''Angry Young Man: The Very Best Of Steve Earle''
2001	''
2003	''

Video/DVD

Year	Album	Additional information
2002	''Transcendental Blues''	Live
2004	''Just An American Boy''
2004	''Live From Austin, TX''
2005	''20th Century Masters - DVD Collection''
2006	''Live at Montreux 2005''

Singles

Year	Title	US Country	U.S. Mainstream Rock	Album
1983	"Nothin' But You"	70
1984	"Squeeze Me In"
1984	"What'll You Do About Me"
1985	"Little Bit In Love"
1986	"Hillbilly Highway"	37		''Guitar Town''
1986	"Guitar Town"	7	20	''Guitar Town''
1986	"Someday"	28		''Guitar Town''
1987	"Goodbye Is All We Have Left"	8		''Guitar Town''
1987	"I Ain't Ever Satisfied"		26	''Exit 0''
1987	"Sweet Little '66"	37		''Exit 0''
1987	"Nowhere Road"	20		''Exit 0''
1988	"Copperhead Road"		10	''Copperhead Road''
1988	"Back To The Road"		20	''Copperhead Road''
1988	"Six Days On The Road"	29		''Essential Steve Earle''
1990	"The Other Kind"		37	''The Hard Way''

External links

★ Steve Earle Home page

★ The Original Unofficial Steve Earle Site

★ "Death in Texas" Article By Earle On Witnessing The Execution Of A Friend

★ Just An American Boy

★ Lyrics for John Walker Blues

★ Interview with Steve Earle

References

1. http://www.steveearle.net/covers.php


★ Schone, Mark. (1998). "Steve Earle." In ''The Encyclopedia of Country Music.'' Paul Kingsbury, Ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 160-1.