Steve Earle has always maintained a huge popularity in Canada. He’s done this despite the fact he gets almost no airplay on Canadian Radio, save for his 2 singles from the late 1980’s, which still show up from time to time on country stations, or that horrible Jack FM [Ed. Note - Hey now, easy on Jack…]. His new material (the 7 albums hence) apparently are too edgy for country radio and I guess not edgy enough for modern rock stations. Even so, Earle’s albums are always top sellers, and it was quite the mix of people who came out on a cold Saturday night to see Steve Earle do an acoustic show at the Centre for Performing Arts. Standing in line, it was evident that Earle reaches quite a wide demographic. From the leather clad mullet militiamen who made the trek from Surrey on their hogs, to the Main St. hipsters, bound up in their many thick scarves, and everyone in between those extremes.

Sadly I missed the opening act: Allison Moorer. She just happens to be Steve’s new wife; I think that’s like number six. I was a little late and they wouldn’t let people in until she was finished, but the guy sitting next to me had good things to say about her, so I will take his word that “she had a fine falsetto voice”. So there you have it.

Earle quietly walked out onto stage and picked up his guitar to a rowdy standing ovation. At first I didn’t even know it was him, as he was casually dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt and he looked like any middle aged man, crushing the picture of the bright eyed handsome young man from his debut album Guitar Town I had in my head. Ahh yes even our heroes succumb to aging.

Through the raucous applause, Earle settles into his first song, which I don’t know the name of. There’s a line in there about never turning 17 [Ed. Note - the song is titled “Summer Wages.”], but it doesn’t ring a bell to me. Earle may have physically aged like a banana in the freezer, but his voice has only gotten better, not in ability, but in a gloriously ragged way. After his first song, he goes into “Steve’s Last Ramble” one of the best songs from the album Transcendental Blues. At one point through the song, Earle chuckles while someone is ejected, for what I don’t know. Having too much fun for the Centre’s standards I guess.

Earle’s great voice and exceptional guitar playing lend well to an acoustic show, far better than I expected. The intimacy lets the audience focus more on his vocals and lyrics, so while at first I had lackluster expectations about it, I’m already totally getting into the show, and the rest of the audience is as well.



Everyone is swept up as Earle pulls out the Bob Dylan style harmonica holder, and plays through some of his classic songs including “Devils Right Hand”, “Someday”, and “My Old Friend the Blues”. Somewhere in there he pauses to switch harmonicas and quips “Same Steve, different harmonica.”

He introduces his next song “Goodbye” saying “This is a song about ole what’s her face, whoever the hell she is” Which I guess is about one of his five ex wives, or maybe a composite of all of them. Earle shows some real swagger with “Southside Girls” and then slows everything down at his eleventh song of the night: the anti capital punishment tale “Billy Austin”.

It’s a protest song but not in the traditional Earle diatribe way. It takes the point of view of Billy, who is a petty thief. One night he goes too far in a robbery of a gas station and kills the cashier. In the end Earle, as Austin, asks the listener if they would be man enough to flip that switch, and take his life. Earle’s voice is full of emotion, and everyone is enraptured, at the end of the song the audience erupts, and I swear the woman sitting in front of me is moved to tears. Alas Earle is preaching to the choir here. If he sang that song at the Republican National Convention, I’m sure they’d all reply “Hell yeah I’d fry that bastard!”

From this point on things change a little; while Earle plays some instrumental music, some dude walks out behind him , he puts on earphones and I come to the horrific conclusion it’s a DJ. He kicks up some drum machine, or sample or whatever those guys use, and it’s horribly obnoxious and overshadows Steve’s guitar and voice. Obviously this is to showcase the songs from the new Grammy winning album “Washington Square Serenade”. So at first I’m in dismay. “Tennessee Blues” and “Jericho Road” don’t go down too well. It’s just taking away from everything that made the acoustic show work.

It does gets better. When Earle whips out the banjo for “Oxytoxin Blues,” things start to gel. Perhaps they adjusted the levels or something. The DJ really hits his stride on the song “CCKMP” i.e. “Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain” The DJ(Bill McDonald) uses an Eastern drumbeat and percussion, while Earle changes the guitar to more Eastern chords, and really it’s quite magnificent. I actually liked this live version better than the cut from the album. I could totally see it as a remix.

So now I’m warming up to the DJ. He’s added a new dimension to the show, and it keeps things entertaining where perhaps just an acoustic guitar could get stagnant, especially with the length of the set Earle would be playing. “CCKMP” fades into a nice drone and we go into the beginning of “Transcendental Blues”. Yes Steve Earle has many songs that end in “Blues”.

After that the DJ leaves and Earle plays “Sparkle and Shine” which he explains was written for his wife Allison Moorer. It’s one of Earle’s better “Chick Songs” as he calls them, and its also an introduction, as right after the song out walks the gorgeous Allison Moorer, in knee high red boots and a long skirt. Earle discusses how he has an affinity for duets, and he’s written them for the likes of Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams and even his sister Stacy. Earle says he had to write one for Moorer and him to do, and they get on with it and play “The Days Are Never Long Enough” Personally I find this duet to be weak compared to his other ones.

After they finish that song, the DJ comes back out, and sets up the beat for my personal favourite off the new album: “Down Below” It takes the perspective of the famous Red Tailed Hawk that lives in Central Park. Highlight of the song is when Earle breaks into some beat poetry style lyrics.

So after 18 songs its about damn time for a good ole Political Rant brought to you by Steve Earle. He starts by going into the upcoming democratic candidate election. Earle is fairly apathetic as he says “whoever wins will end up fucking up our lives one way or the other” He goes on to talk about what he’s most concerned about is the rhetoric over illegal immigrants, and the blaming of problems on them, from them stealing American jobs, to increasing the crime rate. Earle tongue in cheek, points out another country that beguiled a race of people once, and “we all know how that turned out“. Earle adds that NAFTA is a great system, “Until one cow in Alberta gets sick and they close the fucking border down for a year.” The rant ends with some kudos to Canada. He says its great to be in a country “where the government will still help you even when you’re sick,” and that we could teach the world a couple lessons. No matter Canada loves Earle so much.

Of course all this immigrant ranting is all to lead up to his self proclaimed “Fuck Lou Dobbs” song: “City of Immigrants”. It’s a nice little number, with a decidedly ethnic sound, containing the cheesy chorus We are all immigrants. After the song, Moorer leaves to a round of applause, and Earle picks up a mandolin, showing some mad plucking skills while he half snarls, half raps through “Red is the Color.”



After this it’s time for “Steve’s Hammer’ A folky tribute to Pete Seeger, with complementary sample of a hammer hitting an anvil provided by Bill Macdonald. Halfway through the song, Earle calls out that it’s that time, “and we ain’t getting out of it.” Ahh yes sing along time. Earle says he went to Methodist church and knows when you’re just opening your mouth and faking it. Blast that’s what I was gonna do. So everyone has to sing through the chorus, after being chastised the first time, we finally get it together on the second go around. Earle also at one point claims that music stopped the Vietnam war, and it really can change things. Well maybe it did end the war - it just took 15 god damn years to do it.

After the sing along fest, we get “Satellite Radio” Which people had been calling for all night. For what reason I don’t know. I guess it’s his single or something. It’s one of those Steve Earle songs that’s a little too cheesy to get into for me. Earle closes the show with “The Garden,” complete with playback of Earle to create an echo of the lines he sings. Earle says thank you and leaves while the audience whoops it up for a couple of minutes until he returns for an encore. Ooh shocker there.

Earle goes into a story about his mentor Townes Van Zandt. He reminisces about the first time Van Zandt took him skiing. He gave Earle a hit of acid and told him to become one with the mountain. It’s quite the story, and Earle compliments it by playing a Townes Van Zandt song.

After that his second encore song is “Ft. Worth Blues.“ When he’s finished that song, Earle keeps strumming the guitar, and I can tell everyone in the audience is waiting for “Copperhead Road.” Everyone is just hoping for those chords to start to form into the beginning of what is his most famous song. The guitar starts sounding somewhat familiar, it’s close, and I think Earle is just teasing everyone. Then POW!, the opening line My names John Lee Pettimore / same as my daddy and his daddy before. Everyone marks out like crazy. No matter what, it’s still his signature song, the story of a Vietnam vet who comes back from the war to start his own grow-op. And that’s it, Earle again says thanks, and leaves to a fully satisfied audience.

And really it was satisfying, Earle began the show with some of his classic songs, then pretty much played the entire new album, but added a DJ to compliment it. We also got a guest appearance by Allison Moorer, which was good especially for those late bastards, i.e. me who missed her opening...

The show never dragged, even after 27 songs. Not bad, especially without a backing band to take some of the focus off of him. All and all this was a killer concert. No Earle fan could be disappointed, and any fan of music would have to appreciate Earle’s songwriting and musicianship, not to mention the earnestness of his music after being in the business so long. A lot of older acts call it in, but I don’t think you could ever say that about Steve Earle.

Elsewhere

By Ryan Johnston
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : April, 2008.