| 11th September 2007 10:52 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
This from SteveEarle.com
Music To Your Ears
It's been nearly three years since Steve's last studio album and now the hardcore troubadour is back with a brand new record entitled Washington Square Serenade. His first release with New West Records contains twelve tracks and production credits by John King of the famed Dust Brothers (Beck, The Beastie Boys) The album will be released everywhere on CD and vinyl on September 25, but you can pre-order your copy today through SteveEarle.com.
Simply create a free store account here. Then, to ensure you have a smooth and speedy checkout, we suggest setting up your Express Checkout information. Washington Square Serenade is now availble for pre-order through This from SteveEarle.com.
On The Road Again
With only three dates scheduled for 2007, seeing Steve at the ACL Festival, Town Hall Theater, or the Bluegrass Festival will be an amazing experience for all in attendance. If you scored tickets for any of these upcoming shows and want to fill in the rest of us who will just have to wait for new dates to be announced, we invite you to send in your concert reviews and photos to [email protected]. Then invite someone you know to check out your contributions to the site.
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Washington Square Serenade: Steve Earle.
Release date: September 25, 2007.
coquetshack.com
Sept 10,2007
Steve Earle Music on Rhapsody Track List Send YOUR Views Read others' views
Steve Earle says he can't remember making a record that wasn't in some way political, and his new album - Washington Square Serenade - has some very hard and harsh political messages.
It also includes one of the most intimate love songs we've heard in a while and one of the most beautiful.
This is an almost entirely acoustic collectuion recorded in New York,
"City Of Immigrants" - the first single from the album - is, according to Earle, a reply to CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, who has made immigration "his" issue.
The lyrics make it clear what Earle feels about racism and the lyrics portray his enjoymnet of a multi-ethnic City. GettingForro in The Dark - a Brazilian band - to back him on the song is a master stroke both musically and politically!
This may not have the selling power of a John Lennon mantra, but this song makes it point in a way which is , somehow both blunt and yet subtle.
It is superb, but the sad fact is that radio will NOT play it!! That is a shanmeful indictment of radio in the US.
Perhaps that's why we see "Satellite Radio", which precedes it, as a broadside at radio in the States generally and a sort of introduction for the "main event".
"Steve's Hammer" has Earle in overtly political mode while, in some ways, examing his own mortality.
He dedicates the song to the great Pete Seeger, the folk singer and political activist who did so much to lay down the roots for decades of protest songs. (It feels truly extraordinary that we feel the need to explain who Pete Seeger is!!)
Earle sings:
"One of these days I'm gonna lay this hammer down;
"Leave my burden restin' on the ground,"
and adds:
"When air don't choke you, and the ocean's clean,
"And the kids don't die for gasoline."
Elsewhere, he adds "When the war is over and the union's strong" and "When there ain't no hunger and there ain't no pain."
It's a strident message and it will put some folks backs up. But many others will identify with it.
The use of a studio "chorus" adds to the basic folkie feel of the track. It's brilliant!.
Politics aside, our favorite track on the album is "Days Aren't Long Enough",
Earle wrote it with wife, singer-songwriter Alison Moorer, and she duets the song with him. It's a love song, and it's THEIR love song.
This one could actually confuse "Country" radio. It's sharp and "listener friendly" enough to get airtime as a single, and it could even chart!
"Sparkle And Shine" is the other love song we mentioned. It is so melodic that it's beautiful, and that's not a word you'd often associate with Earle. We think this is one of the finest old-style love songs we've heard in a loing time. Earle's growly, sometimes breathless vocals carry it off like no-one else could.
The moment he utters the opening lines of "Tennessee Blues", you realise this is an album of change. This a reworking of the track which opened his debut album 21 years ago, but it's a very different song here. It's somehow more mature, as is Earle.
You can see the sunset in this version, feel the wheels rolling. It is a hugely evocative song in this guise It is - as Earle puts it, "the state of me". The whole CD is acoustic and this, the opening track, has a muted quality which suits the story of Earle quitting Tennessee for New York.
The opening of "Oxycontin Blues" is utterly brerathtaking. In fact the backing is entirely fascinating. The lyrics make no bones of what addiction is and how it affects people.
"This devil that's dragging me down", he sings.
Those who've been there will recognise it all. Those who haven't: beware!!
"Down Here Below" starts as a spoken poem, moves into a very laid back country0-blues and has an extraordinary bridge where the vocoder takes over and puts the song right in the middle of New York street-life, 2007.
The simplicity of the music on "Come Home To Me" is classic Earle and "Jericho Road" has the same laid back feel too.
"Red Is The Color " is a harmonica driven blues, almost peotic recital.
This is Earle looking inwards, perhaps more reflective than he's ever sounded.
The album closes with Earle's cover of Tom Waites "Way Down In The Hole". which is to be used as the theme of the next season of HBO's "The Wire."
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| 11th September 2007 11:12 AM |
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| pdog |
he hates america!!! BUT!!! I love him! I have a feeling this album is going to be killer... |
| 11th September 2007 11:13 AM |
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| Gazza |
I'm not surprised he hasnt done an album in 3 years. Having met Allison Moorer when she was supporting him back then, if I was in his shoes I would find it difficult getting out of bed every day, let alone writing songs.
His 7th wife and she must be about half his age. He must be hung like a horse or something. |
| 11th September 2007 11:16 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
quote:
pdog wrote:
he hates america!!!
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| 11th September 2007 12:02 PM |
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| oldkr |
i love steve earles music- even though he now looks like an accountant!
OLDKR |
| 11th September 2007 12:07 PM |
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| Gazza |
quote:
oldkr wrote:
i love steve earles music- even though he now looks like an accountant!
OLDKR
Actually, these days he looks like one of The Dubliners....! |
| 11th September 2007 12:20 PM |
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| gimmekeef |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
I'm not surprised he hasnt done an album in 3 years. Having met Allison Moorer when she was supporting him back then, if I was in his shoes I would find it difficult getting out of bed every day, let alone writing songs.
His 7th wife and she must be about half his age. He must be hung like a horse or something.
7 Wives may mean he's not hung at all! |
| 11th September 2007 12:28 PM |
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| PartyDoll MEG |
quote:
gimmekeef wrote:
7 Wives may mean he's not hung at all!
Well..gimmekeef, you kinda took my reply to Gazza and his convoluted theory!!!
Looking forward to hearing this album.... |
| 11th September 2007 12:59 PM |
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| gimmekeef |
quote:
PartyDoll MEG wrote:
Well..gimmekeef, you kinda took my reply to Gazza and his convoluted theory!!!
Looking forward to hearing this album....
LOL...So we share more than just a birthday!...Yes hopefully a good album to enjoy.... |
| 11th September 2007 03:43 PM |
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| Gazza |
quote:
gimmekeef wrote:
7 Wives may mean he's not hung at all!
Most of them were when he was young and strung out, so maybe he just wasnt up to it...
One of them he married twice, though, so she cant have been TOO unimpressed....
Anyway, here's the happy couple. You be the judge....
[Edited by Gazza] |
| 11th September 2007 03:54 PM |
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| PartyDoll MEG |
Maybe Allison married him because of his wonderful personality and inner beauty, Gazza?!!!
spelling again-damn!
[Edited by PartyDoll MEG] |
| 11th September 2007 03:58 PM |
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| Gazza |
He actually looked very healthy when they toured together that first time. He'd lost about 60 pounds.
It looks like he hasnt shaved since, though. |
| 11th September 2007 04:19 PM |
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| gimmekeef |
quote:
Gazza wrote:
Most of them were when he was young and strung out, so maybe he just wasnt up to it...
One of them he married twice, though, so she cant have been TOO unimpressed....
Anyway, here's the happy couple. You be the judge....
Judge and jury.....She's guilty of giving me a Ronnie....Nice...thanks...lol
[Edited by Gazza]
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