Steve Earle Looking to Spark Dialogue on “Ghosts of West Virginia”
Unless you’ve been living on Mars, you probably know all about the often polarizing political opinions of alt-country legend Steve Earle. One of the most outspoken and politically-charged performers of our time, he pulls no punches, either in his music, or on stage or in his public persona. But with his upcoming record, he’s taking a completely different approach. But unlike many of his Americana brethren who are feeling compelled to speak out politically these days, Steve Earle is the unlikely performer looking to strike a chord of unity.
“I thought that, given the way things are now, it was maybe my responsibility to make a record that spoke to and for people who didn’t vote the way that I did,” Earle says. “One of the dangers that we’re in is if people like me keep thinking that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist or an asshole, then we’re fucked, because it’s simply not true. So this is one move toward something that might take a generation to change. I wanted to do something where that dialogue could begin.”
Steve Earle is looking to accomplish this by focusing on a topic where the sentiment is almost universal, and in a unique project that came about as a collaboration with a theater production. The album called Ghosts of West Virginia will be released by New West records on May 22nd. But Steve Earle is set to appear in a play called Coal Country that will be running from now until March 29th at New York’s Public Theater where he will be performing multiple songs from the upcoming album.
Based off of the 2010 mine tragedy at the Upper Big Branch coal mine where 29 people died in an explosion, and subsequent investigations discovered many safety violations and cover-ups, playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen created a stage production around this true story with many themes that have commonly touched country music, with Steve Earle writing songs that appear at critical moments in the production. Through the tragedy, the hope is we can all find a commonality in the narrative.
“I said I wanted to speak to people that didn’t necessarily vote the way that I did, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have anything in common. We need to learn how to communicate with each other. My involvement in this project is my little contribution to that effort. And the way to do that—and to do it impeccably—is simply to honor those guys who died at Upper Big Branch,” says Steve Earle.
Joining him in this effort once again will be his backing band The Dukes currently consisting of “The Mastersons” of Chris Masterson on guitar and Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle & vocals, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel, guitar & dobro, Brad Pemberton on drums & percussion, and Jeff Hill on acoustic & electric bass, who fills the place of bass player Kelley Looney who passed away in 2019 after 30 years of playing behind Steve Earle.
Needless to say, there will be a lot of songs about coal and West Virginia on the new album, and we get a taste of that with the new song released ahead of the album, “Devil Put Coal in the Ground” (listen below). “I’ve already made the preaching-to-the-choir album,” Earle says, alluding to his 2004 album The Revolution Starts…Now. But this one will be focused on the 29 souls who perished in the Upper Big Branch mine. The record is also being dedicated to bass player Kelley Looney.
Ghosts of West Virginia is now available for pre-order.
TRACKLIST:
- Heaven Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
- Union, God and Country
- Devil Put the Coal in the Ground
- John Henry was a Steel Drivin’ Man
- Time is Never on Our Side
- It’s About Blood
- If I Could See Your Face Again
- Black Lung
- Fastest Man Alive
- The Mine
March 2, 2020 @ 9:24 am
I don’t know why but the word “dialogue” drives me crazy.
March 2, 2020 @ 9:44 am
Drives me crazy, as well. I think what it means is that people in power are going to pretend to listen to your concerns, when, in fact, the course is already predetermined. Our lieutenant governor went on a “listening tour” all over the state to have “dialogue” with voters about whether or not marijuana should be legal. If any resident thought that he would come back and say “you know what, I talked to Pennsylvanians, and they don’t think its a good idea to legalize marijuana,” I’ve got some oceanfront property in Arizona I’d be willing to sell you. The “dialogue” allows them to pretend that they care what you think and inoculates them from the criticism that comes from a unilateral decision, which is, of course, what already happened before the dialogue.
March 3, 2020 @ 8:32 am
Are you saying a majority of Pennsylvanians are opposed to legalizing weed?
April 10, 2020 @ 11:50 am
why the hell would anyone be opposed to legalizing weed? and how could anyone talk to a representative amount and Pennslyvanians and think that most of them would be opposed to it either?
April 10, 2020 @ 4:27 pm
You’re right. Legalizing marijuana will be a huge net positive. My point was that he acted as if he was going to make a decision that was informed by the opinions of the citizens, when, of course, it was already a fait accompli. Of course, he was going to return from his listening tour with the result that Pennsylvanians support legalized marijuana. It just put a veneer of the democratic process on the whole thing. Why not just have a referendum? Then, we could have some idea of the voters’ actual feelings. Of course, the lazy bums who get high all day are too disinterested to vote or get up off the couch, so it would probably fail. If the question were more important, say, abortion or sham marriage, the SCOTUS never leaves that up to a vote. The elites can’t have the people actually decide. That is too risky and they have already decided for us.
March 2, 2020 @ 10:16 am
Eh. Chose it because “conversation” ran me over the character count on the title bar.
March 8, 2020 @ 5:43 pm
At least Steve’s prior political initiatives have succeeded. Landmines and the death penalty no longer exist. John Walker Lindh is an unrepentant terrorist Muslim.
Good job, Steve. Now’s the time to reach out, after 20 years of being an insufferable Marxist tool.
March 2, 2020 @ 9:25 am
Oh come all you young fellers
so young and so fine
Seek not your fortune
in a dark dreary mine…
March 2, 2020 @ 9:38 am
I love Steve Earle, but just hope the remaining songs are better than “Devil Put Coal in the Ground”
March 2, 2020 @ 11:31 am
This is an album that will probably have to be heard in context. I’m afraid some of the songs outside of the play may not work.
We are going to NYC to see the play in 3 weeks.
And this is the first fan bundle pre-sale I’ve ever purchased. I’m all in on this project.
March 2, 2020 @ 9:54 am
Good for him. I’ve always thought Steve was a talented song writer, but the way he wears his politics on his sleeve can be Somewhat off putting. It sounds like he has a little better grasp on the political climate than some of his younger contemporaries who look to him for guidance and inspiration. Let’s hope it spreads
March 2, 2020 @ 10:15 am
“One of the dangers that we’re in is if people like me keep thinking that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist or an asshole, then we’re fucked, because it’s simply not true.”
That is a very powerful statement coming from someone like Steve Earle who is a direct influence on so many of today’s Americana artists who seem to think differently, even though it would seem like such an obvious conclusion to come to. One of the few other songwriters I’ve seen make this observation is BJ Barham.
March 2, 2020 @ 10:43 am
Sad when that is such an achievement, but it’s better than nothing I guess.
March 2, 2020 @ 10:56 am
I’m hip to what Earle is saying, but…. The area of East Central Illinois I’m from went for Trump by about a 3-to-1 margin in 2016. I know lots of people who voted for him. They are honest, sensible people and can be generous to a fault. And here’s where the “but…” comes in. They supported a man who embodies none of those qualities. And they know it.
I want to reconcile that cognitive dissonance but I haven’t yet. These people are my friends, yet they support policies that are odds with their honesty, good sense and generosity. So I am left to wonder if it is just because they don’t like brown people or they just want anti-choice judges on the U.S. Supreme Court or they thought Trump was entertaining on “The Apprentice.”
I’m a huge fan of Earle and I’ll be interested to see how his dialogue goes.
(As an aside, Earle knows playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen from his appearances in “The Exonerated,” which they also wrote. An innocent guy I helped get off Death Row is one of the exonerated featured in the play, and he introduced me to Earle in New York. Saw the play and went out to dinner with Earle and later met up with Eric “Roscoe” Ambel at the club he used to own.)
March 2, 2020 @ 11:14 am
“So I am left to wonder if it is just because they don’t like brown people…”Quit wondering, grow a sack and ask them.
March 2, 2020 @ 11:24 am
“Grow a sack.” That’s cute. I’m abroad and when I’m back in the U.S. this summer, I intend to ask. The ones I *have* brought it up with previously have generally given the reasons I laid out. They don’t like brown people and/or they want Roe v. Wade overturned and/or “The Apprentice” led them to believe Trump was actually a competent businessman.
March 2, 2020 @ 11:49 am
They didn’t want a murderess for President.
Let us harken all the way back to Vince Foster, and cut the bullshit.
March 2, 2020 @ 11:54 am
Gawd, I am SOOO hoping your comment is satire….
March 2, 2020 @ 12:19 pm
Lifelong Democrat voter here. Not going to start a political argument. Just going to mention that my next vote will likely be a vote against the increasingly intolerant and radical left. From the Walkaway movement to others, there’s a lot of people thinking the same thing as me. Your passively aggressive, patronizing question, leads me to believe that you won’t be able to “reconcile” your own cognitive dissonance any time soon.
I can appreciate Steve’s message here, but it shows just how low the bar is right now on the left, that having the tolerance to have a conversation without being condescending and dismissive is something special.
March 2, 2020 @ 12:36 pm
Very good explanation, lots of people didn’t vote for Trump, they voted against the rest.
Almost an anarchist streak “if you won’t listen to me I’ll do something radical and maybe you’ll listen now”
March 2, 2020 @ 12:36 pm
The assumption of greater intellect by the radical left is the reason many of us have “walked away.”
What they don’t understand is that it’s not even political. We’re just put off by the openly smug arrogance.
March 2, 2020 @ 1:22 pm
North Woods and Blackh4t:
Though I agree with both of you, for me it goes much deeper. Their lack of tolerance for any dissenting opinion, abandonment of the bill of rights, and divisive (and racist) identity politics are leaving me with little choice..
March 2, 2020 @ 4:57 pm
I just wanna point out that the Walkaway “movement” is entirely astroturf. I am a young American, I interact with young Americans. Not all of those young Americans are liberal. Absolutely the ONLY people I have seen bring up the “walkaway” bullshit are boomers and highly-paid media personalities. It’s all kabuki, that stuff. Best ignore it.
March 2, 2020 @ 5:19 pm
It was brought up as one example. But by all means, keep ignoring it.
March 3, 2020 @ 1:02 pm
The left has lowered the bar? The bar has never been this low for how the president will act and what he will do. Oh I know he’s a wonderful Christian, who is a compulsive liar and cheated on his wife with a porn star while she was pregnant, or how he scrappedPrograms like meals on wheels in preschool to give billionaires tax breaks they don’t really need.
March 3, 2020 @ 1:41 pm
I was making a point related to the topic at hand… about dialogue and political tolerance. You want to bash someone and have a whataboutism argument. Consider me not surprised.
March 2, 2020 @ 12:33 pm
Pro-life, not “anti-choice.”
March 2, 2020 @ 12:47 pm
“They are honest, sensible people and can be generous to a fault. And here’s where the “but…” comes in. They supported a man who embodies none of those qualities. And they know it.”
Perhaps it’s because the alternative at the ballot box was neither honest nor sensible, and only capable of being generous with the money of others (Hillary deducting Bill’s used underwear).
March 2, 2020 @ 1:43 pm
Yeah, gonna have to disagree there. Over the years, there have been countless investigations into Clinton (by Republicans, no less) yet there’s not been a single criminal charge and no credible allegation of dishonesty. And any claim Trump, the self-proclaimed “very stable genius” who can’t spell “hamburger” is more sensible than Clinton also has problems in the reality department. Oh, but I know! You’ll just claim my reply proves the smugness/arrogance of the left, self-proclaim victory and go home.
The fact that some people (as demonstrated in a reply above) actually believe Clinton killed Vince Foster is proof some folks just can’t accept reality. When the facts don’t conform to their bias, then they dispute the facts. Opinions are not the same as facts.
That said, we’re getting far afield of Trig’s piece on Earle.
March 2, 2020 @ 2:26 pm
Self-proclaim victory? Nah, I don’t believe in the concept anymore.
Well, if you really believe that the Clintons are the paragons of honesty, you’re already fishing off that ocean front pier in AZ.
Regarding the folks back home – maybe you’ll get lucky and their congressional seat will get redistricted away. Then they can STFU and pay their taxes, like they ought to.
March 2, 2020 @ 4:13 pm
I live in the area you’re referencing and can tell you the folks that I know voted for him because they were tired of being talked down to by career politicians. Trump came to my town of less than 100,000 while campaigning. Hillary came nowhere near. None of the folks I know who voted for him watched The Apprentice or hate brown people. They want to live their lives and support their families. Some of these folks I know who voted for him are ‘brown’ as you said. The sooner the left quits name calling and has a platform with real ideas instead of ‘orange man bad’, the sooner they may make some real change.
I applaud Steve Earle here. Maybe Isbell can take some lessons.
March 2, 2020 @ 9:18 pm
Hey gang. We all have something really big and really important in common, namely that we all love and listen to the same music. Why don’t we talk to each other like FRIENDS whom we’re trying to PERSUADE? Up and down this thread, and in recent Isbell and Sturgill threads, it’s as if the only tool at our disposals is a bludgeon. Bash, bash, bash.
Mr. death penalty guy, our work has a lot in common, and our worldview probably do, too. I’m a lawyer and represent parents whose kids are taken away and put in foster care by the state social services department. If you got a guy off death row, I know you know how to make people listen and challenge their beliefs and change their minds. I can’t imagine this is the way you talk to judges and juries, is it? You sure haven’t persuaded anyone here to change their minds.
March 2, 2020 @ 10:03 pm
The replies to my original comments underscore the difficulty Earle may face trying to start a dialogue. One side has no interest in a dialogue, and it ain’t us lefties. I expressed curiosity about how friends could ignore some very obvious contradictions, and I said I’ve asked them about it and intend to continue asking in an attempt to reconcile those contradictions. In reply, I get told to “grow a sack,” I’m told Hillary is a murderer, I’m informed about the “smug arrogance” of the “intolerant left” and, to top it off, I’m told identity politics is “racist.” None of those replies sound remotely interested in having a dialogue.
At least I expressed some desire to understand how people with different views reached their conclusions. I didn’t hear the same curiosity out of them, and when I asked people about it back home, I never get similar questions in return. They start from the assumption I am misguided and that they have nothing to explain; one might describe *that* attitude as “smug arrogance.” I asked for a dialogue and got talking points in reply. But I’ll keep asking anyway.
March 3, 2020 @ 8:23 am
your friends in Illinois are like a lot of people from rural america. they gravitate toward traditional values, believe in god. Many are most likely gun owners who stand by the second amendment and don’t recognize a democratic party that seems more concerned with identity politics, LGBT issues and illegal immigrants than they do the citizens of middle America. I grew up in a small farm community in Indiana. I can remember my dad telling me “son, we’re democrats. Democrats are for the working man”. I have no doubt that if he was still alive, he would have voted Trump 10 times if they would have let him.
March 3, 2020 @ 2:46 pm
And your father would’ve got screwed like the rest us
March 3, 2020 @ 12:24 pm
Candidly, it’s a little weird you put “anti-choice” in the same dismissive and seemingly-pejorative category as not liking brown people. To me this is what Earle is talking about. I’m sure some guys vote pro-life because they loathe women and want to control them. But you’ve got to be pretty obtuse not to recognize that a ton of these people genuinely think abortion is a moral/ethical issue where their position is compelled by faith/conscience.
As for Earle, I think it’s a great approach, but the key will be whether this “dialogue” is two ways or not. Is he hoping to “convince” the well-meaning Trump supporters of their evil ways? Or is he open to the feedback he might receive? In other words, maybe he’ll convince Trump supporters that the rhetoric on immigrants and refugees has no place here, but will he accept it as meritorious when they argue that America should nonetheless enforce its laws, be more discerning in how we define refugees, etc.?
March 3, 2020 @ 8:02 pm
Bullshit. They aren’t pro life. They are pro fetus. Let that child be African American, Muslim, gay, poor or god (their imaginary friend) forbid born to an undocumented immigrant and they don’t give a damn.
The religious right is nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. If Obama had multiple marriages, multiple affairs, paid off pornstars or grabbed women by the pussy, republicans would of had him and his entire family lynched on fox news.
You support a bigot? Don’t be surprised when people think the same of you.
March 2, 2020 @ 1:01 pm
I expect that quote will get a Cancel Squad on his case, like happened to Pop singer Ellie Goulding when her fans noticed she committed the atrocity of helping at a Salvation Army soup kitchen. Of course, she turned it into a come to Liberal Jesus moment. Maybe Earle is old & crusty enough to have more backbone than her, though.
March 2, 2020 @ 2:00 pm
Not sure Earle is a worthwhile target or that what he’s doing here would be seen the same as her “crime.” Also, Ellie is a pretty big pop star, and though Earle is a legend to many, he’s not quite on a platform that the purity police would go after, IMO.
March 8, 2020 @ 5:47 pm
“One of the dangers that we’re in is if people like me keep thinking that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist or an asshole, then we’re fucked, because it’s simply not true. So this is one move toward something that might take a generation to change. I wanted to do something where that dialogue could begin.”
——-
Too late. He’s been a condescending prick for too long.
He was the reason I learned how to play the guitar. And then he became a Bolshevik blowhard who was smarter than everybody else.
Screw him.
March 2, 2020 @ 10:45 am
my guess is, he just wanted to release the songs from the play.
March 2, 2020 @ 12:10 pm
The play features seven of these ten songs, with Steve Earle kind of acting like the narrator. Obviously the album will have more fleshed out studio versions, and I also feel like Earle is approaching it as more of a standalone project that dovetails with the play as opposed to a landing place for some of the songs he wrote for they play.
March 2, 2020 @ 12:28 pm
When Chris Knight was a guest on Earle’s radio show back in October, Earle was beside himself with jealously that Knight took 8 years between albums. Earle told Knight that his business model is put out an album a year and tour on it (all the money in the tour). Earle confessed that the songwriting on these albums suffer under this kind of model. He also said that’s why he does projects instead of albums.
March 2, 2020 @ 10:56 am
Contrast this with comments from other artists (i.e., Sturgill, Isbell) and you get an idea why, even though I disagree with Steve Earle on a lot of things, I still listen to the guy’s music.
March 2, 2020 @ 11:36 am
Despite his political leanings, Earle has always championed the blue-collared man (and woman) and unions. Let’s see Hank Jr. or Charlie Daniels pull of a project like this.
March 2, 2020 @ 12:40 pm
What do you mean despite?
March 2, 2020 @ 12:42 pm
Despite bring liberal, he’s always fought for the common man.
March 2, 2020 @ 12:44 pm
I dont see the contradiction be like saying,
“Despite being a country singer, hes always appreciated classic country music”
March 2, 2020 @ 3:11 pm
Conservatives think liberals are either over-educated elites that can’t offer any common sense to society or poor people with their hands out trying to live off their (the conservative’s) hard earned taxes. Pretty ironic for a party that supports Trump who after lowering taxes on the rich, went to Mar-a-Lago to tell his country club supporters that they all just got a lot richer.
March 8, 2020 @ 5:52 pm
Common people like John Walker Lindh.
And convicted multiple murderers.
Salt of the Earth, that Steve Earle.
March 2, 2020 @ 11:45 am
Also, don’t think that Earle is extending an olive branch to Trump’s agenda or his presidency. Earle believes Trump supporters voted against the better of their own interests in 2016. A big part of this project is telling how the Republican Party eliminateD unions that lead to this horrific accident.
March 8, 2020 @ 5:54 pm
Evidence of how “the Republican party eliminated unions,” and how that led to the accident?
March 2, 2020 @ 12:24 pm
By extending his hand, and offering conversation instead of condemn to the right, he will be demonized and hated now by the left woke. The left woke is a dangerous brainwashed cult that does all of the things it claims to hate religion for, but does them much more extremely than religion does or ever has. Jason Isbell sucks.
March 2, 2020 @ 12:31 pm
Take notes, Mr. Isbell
March 2, 2020 @ 2:33 pm
I just cannot muster anything for Earle. To each his or her own. I do not need a political litmus test to appreciate an artist’s offerings, but since the album “Jerusalem” and the single “John Walker Blues”, I just can’t seem to put any credence into anything he does or says.
Subsequent releases such as “The Revolution Starts Now” which was used in Michael Moore’s anti-war documentary only confirmed my personal bias, especially since I am the proud father of an ex-Marine.
Now to hear him make such a statement about the purpose of this album? I will pass. Kind of like a burglar wanting to reach out to homeowners with a burglary system. No thanks.
But dang, I sure do fulfill a guilty pleasure occasionally and crank up “Copperhead Road”.
March 2, 2020 @ 4:14 pm
I have been a fan of Earle’s music since Guitar Town. I have never agreed with his politics, and he lost me when he went overboard politically with his music. He’s a great songwriter, if not a bit misguided and wrapped up in his own greatness and opinions. It’s crazy to think that the left have gone so far sideways that even Steve is changing his tune. Five more years of tears for the the TDS suffers! It’s going to be entertaining.
March 2, 2020 @ 4:37 pm
After I read this piece my first thought was….”What does releasing 10 songs about coal mining disasters have to do with reaching out to Trump voters…??????”
Then I read a longer version of this same interview that kind of explains it. (for me, anyway)
Steve Earle believes in sustainable clean energy and ending the use of fossil fuels.
He realizes people who make their living in the coal mines, (Trump voters) might not share his views…So doing a album about mine disasters is his way of reaching out…..
Also, in the same interview is a long list of all Steve’s tour dates….which I assume he and the band get to by either electric bus or Ox drawn cart…
March 2, 2020 @ 5:06 pm
And that kind of sanctimonious asshole comment is better than the far lefts bullshit how? You’re a tribalist. You have no interest in the betterment of this country, you just want to stick it to your fellow Americans who happen to have different political views than you. YOU and people like you are the problem and the cause of the hateful division tearing our country apart. That kind of crap is what Steve’s trying to get around. Maybe you could try be being an American instead of a Trump cultist.
March 3, 2020 @ 4:10 pm
Hey…calm down there, Jimbo…. It’s amusing that a tribalist calls me a tribalist…
My sanctimonious asshole comment is better than the far lefts bullshit because I’m better at making snarky comments than you are…. (try not being so emotional)
Like I said in my post…I didn’t get the connection between Mr Earle’s miner songs and his stated desire to reach those who don’t share his political views. If he had released an album of songs that suggested unity, his statement would have made more sense to me…
So anyway, I google his quote and found it came from a longer interview… This passage was in the interview…”Earle’s politics have not changed. He believes in sustainable energy sources and ending fossil fuels.”
“But that doesn’t mean a thing in West Virginia,” he said. You can’t begin communicating with people unless you understand the texture of their lives, the realities that provide significance to their days. That is the entire point of ‘Ghosts of West Virginia’.”
(which is what I said in my post, with less words, more snark)
I have nothing against clean energy or finding a replacement for fossil fuels…
The “end fossil fuels-here’s a list of tour dates” is one of those funny ironies of life that I find humorous.
I find the “America have never been more divided” argument way over blown. America has always be divided. Check your history… The Civil War, the 60’s, the Anarchists movements of the early 1900s, ect….
The difference is we now have social media so people can go…”OMG, it’s never been this bad….just look at my tweeter feed…!!!!!!”
March 2, 2020 @ 4:54 pm
Steve Earle is the Euronymous of country music, but I’d listen to his diatribes over any piece of shit they call country music today!!
March 2, 2020 @ 5:00 pm
In… what way does Steve Earle even slightly resemble Euronymous?
March 3, 2020 @ 4:37 pm
His overly and heavily socialist views.
March 3, 2020 @ 5:23 pm
I did not know Euronymous was a socialist.
Also I gotta admit that his economic views aren’t really the first things that come to mind when I think about him.
March 5, 2020 @ 7:20 pm
I’m just happy to see Mayhem mentioned in a round about way on this board.
April 6, 2020 @ 5:17 pm
Michael Strait, Euronymous was actually a member of Norway’s communist party. He was a supporter of Pol Pot and admitted he liked socialism because it brought “misery and death to the world.” As great as Steve Earle’s 1986-2000 discography was, he crossed the point of no return when he made a song glorifying Johnny Walker Lindh.
You’re right though. Earle might be an even more leftist soundboard than Euronymous ever was. At least Mayhem never overtly preached communism in their music.
March 2, 2020 @ 5:24 pm
While this sort of thinking shouldn’t be so rare, I’m glad Steve’s heart is in the right place. His earlier work acted as the soundtrack to a lot of my late teen/ early adult years and I’ll forever be fond of this memories and the music he made. I also love his straight-forward willingness to speak openly about his songwriting and artistic process, something a lot of musicians are very candid and hush-hush about.
He has suffered from an unfortunately common problem amongst successful touring songwriters. They become very alienated from the human experience. They live on a bus and don’t have the financial burdens or average struggles that used to inspire their work. Instead, they turn to politics and/or “life on the road” because it’s the only thing in their life that they can write about. Guys like Isbell and Earle and Simpson used to have so much to say because they were out there grinding like we are. Once they earned a little padding from the struggles of the average Joe, they stopped relating to us.
I hope Steve’s words are genuine, and I look forward to the new album.
March 2, 2020 @ 5:33 pm
Steve has 5 ex wives and a autistic son with ex Allison Moorer whose schooling and therapy costs a fortune. He has commented on stage many times he’d like to relax more and catch more Yankee games but needs to keep the wheels turning for John Henrys’ future.
March 2, 2020 @ 5:27 pm
I’m going to totally stay away from the political and just say that this version of ‘The Dukes’ is one kick-ass tight as hell band. The addition of the Mastersons’ and Ricky Ray Jackson really resonates. Caught them on the 30th anniversary Copperhead Road tour and will be grabbing tickets this time around too because Steve always hits some venues in Ontario for us Canadian fans. It a sure bet he’ll be playing “The Mountain’ and ‘Harlan Man’, a couple of coal mining songs from his Bluegrass album with Del McCoury all those years ago and one of his best in my opinion. RIP Kelley Looney.
March 2, 2020 @ 9:48 pm
Totally agree. The Mountain is a stone classic. Absolutely gorgeous song that sounds like it has been around forever.
I have a real soft spot in my heart for Earle, no matter how hard I try to erase it. I moved to Houston in 87 listening to Exit O. I came back East and saw him at Maxwell’s in Hoboken some time in the late 80s. He was skinny as a rail and it was a thousand degrees in there, and the woman I was with said it looked like he was melting away. He was all passion and piss and vinegar, plus an armload of great songs. It was exciting and dangerous, way out on the edge. It seemed like the way rock and roll was supposed to be.
I kept listening and liked or loved all the albums up through It’s Alright. Then I read his godawful book of short stories or poems or essays or whatever it was and got really turned off. It was called “Dog-something,” can’t quite recall the title. I’m more or less in synch with his politics, but he seemed like a showoff and an immodest blowhard, so I really got alienated. I’m 100% against the death penalty, but thought “Billy Austin” was boring, unimaginative, and preachy. But then damn if I didn’t get into bluegrass and lo and behold, he did that amazing album with Del and the boys, my favorite kick-ass, always-on-point bluegrass band. Never got back into his other music, though, and finally saw him again in Baltimore a year or so ago and it seemed like he was bored and phoning it in. What a disappointment.
What does it all mean? Yeah, he inspires deep feelings in every direction. He must have something special to him one way or another.
March 2, 2020 @ 5:51 pm
Folks, I know there’s a political element to this story. But please, let’s try to keep this on the topic of Steve Earle and his music. Thanks!
March 2, 2020 @ 9:16 pm
Trigger,
I agree with your sentiment; however it is Earle that makes the political the main topic. He has presented himself, especially the last several years, as one with message accompanied by music and not the other way around. It is HE who sets the stage for politics to be brought in to any discussion about him and his music. I wish it wasn’t so.
Now on another guilty pleasure, “Galloway Girl”.
March 8, 2020 @ 5:50 pm
How’s this?
Steve Earle is a liberal douchebag prick who’s noticed his record sales are falling.
March 2, 2020 @ 5:53 pm
How about he just gets together with Isbell,Sturgill and makes a album called snowflake?
March 7, 2020 @ 6:07 am
Damn if listening to John Prine singing Paradise wouldnt cause the majority here to as my WV granma to say…have a conniption fit.
Embrace Steve’s musical contributions to the play or not it’s about the indeferance to human life over company profit…I was born in WV and lived there at different times of my 67 yrs on the planet, if you’ve never lived in these coal dependent communities you really cant understand the conflict a man experiences going to work in conditions he KNOWS are less than ideally safe in order to feed his family and raise his young’uns.
March 2, 2020 @ 7:27 pm
Steve has about the exact opposite politics of mine (I’m a Libertarian Anarchist), but I have always loved him. Can’t wait to hear this record.
March 2, 2020 @ 10:43 pm
First. It is comical to keep reading how conservatives voted for someone who doesn’t share their beliefs, as the DEMOCRAT frontrunner is NOT a Democrat..
Second. ITS THE ECONOMY STUPID.
You can only sit around unemployed for so long until you grab on to something, thus Trump.
Third. Shut up and sing. Lessons in life from folks who really have no basis in it gets old. You play a guitar and can rhyme. Whether you are Steve Earle or Lee Greenwood, matters not. I care about your “truth” less than I do the lady who makes my coffee. Your not courageous. Your not insightful. You sing well, or play well. Shut up and sing, R or D
March 2, 2020 @ 11:39 pm
You come off as an asshole. Maybe work on that?
March 3, 2020 @ 2:54 pm
Sounds like you only believe in free speech for those who agree with you…
March 3, 2020 @ 7:52 pm
Seriously, how about you shut the fuck up and do whatever it is you do for a living. It’s is absurd that singers, actors, athletes can’t speak out according to conservatives but it’s all good to hear from some clown living in dome rural shithole town.
March 3, 2020 @ 9:11 pm
Hey jackwagon, since you obviously can’t read, I guess you missed Lee Greenwood in my comment? Last I checked hes a conservative. Funny. If I comment on a singer it’s “shut the fuck up”, but if i have to listen to a singer comment, that’s free speech.
Steve Earle spent his entire life talking down to folks. Now he gets credit for realizing he’s been an ass?
March 3, 2020 @ 4:20 am
This is like Toby Keith reaching out to Leftist voters by releasing a record about victims of the Cultural Revolution in China.
March 3, 2020 @ 7:25 am
…Toby Keith is a Democrat.
He just knows where his bread is buttered.
March 3, 2020 @ 7:39 am
You know, Toby is a Democrat….kind of.
— Willie Nelson 😉
March 3, 2020 @ 8:43 am
I’m glad to see Steve Earle taking this approach. I’m originally from “flyover country” myself and the thing that has alienated a lot of the folks where I come from are not so much the positions of the political Left but the way that many of the Left’s hobby horses are things that are simply not relevant to the lives of many ordinary people. Many of them, for instance, are not really that scared of debating transgender rights, but somebody who is struggling to keep his house from being foreclosed or whose kid came home from Afghanistan missing limbs is going to be far more concerned about those issues.
March 3, 2020 @ 9:04 am
Kudos to Steve.
March 3, 2020 @ 5:33 pm
This just Sounds better than anything on the Wannabe record.
March 3, 2020 @ 9:37 pm
I like early Steve Earle , but this guy doesn’t deserve to get to write and sing about anything “West Virginia.” He is no different than the coal mining operations that have exploited the people and land of this great state. And he is really no different than any other outsider that doesn’t understand Appalachia people, wanting to “label” us as Trump drum beaters. F*c* steve Earle .
March 5, 2020 @ 9:42 am
I applaud him for his sentiment, though I’ll never vote for Trump (I didn’t like him when he was a “democrat” and I don’t like him as a “republican”) I agree that his voting block is not a monolith. Of course, Earle also states it’s “my responsibility,” he’s as self-important as always.
March 5, 2020 @ 1:08 pm
Olive branch shredded, dialogue ended. Did you see the artwork for the RSD 7″ Ghosts of West Virginia? It’s a Donald Trump skull portrait in front of an upside down American flag.
https://www.facebook.com/SteveEarleMusic/photos/a.476185123840/10158075650748841/?type=3&eid=ARAyZJJ4wQBTvpm-SRpk2n0ALYsFUtSIOFQvDepxTgBtUIUA_BW4KFwnyl2YWaFzGk2KQpo1CDNddF0z&__tn__=EEHH-R