Steve Earle @ SIRIUS / Town Hall

October 1st, 2007 - by John

Alt-Country, NYC, Shows

I was lucky enough to see recent NYC resident (by way of Virginia, Texas, and Tennessee) Steve Earle twice this past week. On Tuesday Earle released his twelfth studio album Washington Square Serenade. To celebrate, Steve chatted and performed a few tracks for a live satellite radio broadcast with Mojo Nixon at the SIRIUS headquarters in NYC. Earle was joined in the glass walled studio by his wife country singer Allison Moorer (Earle has been married 7 times). These are mostly love songs about New York, said Earle of the new album- and Allison. Earle was also backed by the unusual accompaniment of Neil MacDonald on turntables. Washington Square Serenade was produced by John King, one half of the production team The Dust Brothers. Earle took advantage of MacDonald’s support to kick out a couple of tracks from the new record- including “City of Immigrants” and appropriately “Satellite Radio” (Steve also has his own radio program on SIRIUS).

Allison Moorer and Steve Earle

The next night I found myself in midtown again, this time at the storied Town Hall. (See my rant on what a neat place Town Hal is here.) Earle opened the set talking about folk singing. There’s a rule, he said, that you’re supposed to tell you who taught you a song before you play it- we’ll I learned this one off of a Bob Dylan record. The track turned out to be “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” by Eric von Schmidt. Earle reminisced that he had actually lived across the street from Schmidt in Mexico but never could get up the nerve to go and learn the song from its writer. The thoughts on folk singing proved to be an accurate indication of the evening to come- the set was no frills- with Earle accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. MacDonald reprised his role on a few of the new tracks and also on “Jerusalem” from the 2002 record of the same name. Moorer (who also opened the show) also joined her husband for a couple of numbers including the duet “Days Aren’t Long Enough”. Earle joked that he written a lot of duets, but most of them required a bit of acting. Not the case with Allison. He closed the opening set w/Tom Waits “Way Down In The Hole” which he also covers on the new record. The Waits track is the theme song for HBO’s The Wire- each season a different artist records it for the opening credits. Earle has acted, as a recovering heroin addict, on The Wire and his version will open the fifth and final season of the show.

The Encore was a nice mix of hits, including “My Old Friend The Blues” and “Copperhead Road” as well as the “Rich Man’s War” from 2004’s excellent The Revolution Starts…Now. If you don’t play “Hardcore Troubadour” I’m not going to get laid- yelled one fan during the opening set. I’m definitely pro-sex replied Earle- obliging the request in the first encore.

Something I appreciate about Steve Earle’s music is his ability to be political with tact and grace plus a great pop sensibility. Making the message in a medium people can relate to is what makes protest music effective. The second and final encore ended with “Christmas in Washington” in which Earle calls for the return of Woody Guthrie, but I think we’ll be alright- the tradition continues- we’ve got Steve Earle.

Here’s a video of Steve doing “Rich Man’s War”