how to play the blues, he knows how to make it fun.
It’s more than just the songs that make his concert so attractive. He also knows how to work the
crowd. Before launching into “My Baby’s Just as
Mean as Me”, a duet sung with Whitemore, he announces “Truth be told I’d never considered writing a fucking duet for this record, for more than one
reason I suppose.”
After a heavy and colorful rendition of the
crowd-pleasing “Copperhead Road”, perhaps his
most well-known track, Steve shouts out, “Now all
you on parole can go home before your ankle bracelet goes off!” to the cackling pleasure of some of the
audience.
With his irreverent comedy, it’s easy to see why
he’s convinced six different women to marry him —
one of them twice. But as the set settles in, Steve
uses his comedy to ease into his darker side, admitting “I don’t mind getting married, but I hate getting divorced,” a process that he laments as each
time it includes more paper and more money.
Somewhere along the way in his latest divorce,
Steve made the realization that he’d written, “a lot
of fucking songs.” So many, in fact, that he doesn’t
46 • CIDER MAG • cidermag.com
remember writing some of them, but as he picks the
opening line to “Goodbye” he tells his audience that
he’ll never forget writing this one, because it’s the
first one he ever wrote sober.
After the concert that night I find the words tenderness, humanity, humor, humility, and accessibility scrawled across the top of my page of notes. Even
now, I can’t determine which word best characterizes Earle’s performance. Even opaque criticism
in a song called “Little Emperor,” targeting former President George W. Bush, displays shades of
self-awareness with the introduction, “This is about
an asshole from Texas, but it ain’t me!”
But it’s roots music; good, honest, heartfelt roots
music at that, and even if the song isn’t about him
— the lyrics, the chords, the sweaty, plodding performance — they all contain parts of him that he
unashamedly shares with his audience.
By the end of the exhausting but worthwhile 28
song set, which included a four song encore, one
truth rings clear: Steve Earle cares about you, and
whatever your demon, your disappointment, your
heartbreak, he hopes to show compassion by sharing his own. ■
Winter • 2015