Published on Oct 29, 2001
Steve Earle has arguably come out with the finest body of work
in the alt-country genre ever since making a comeback to the music
scene. His biography, so far, plays like a movie: He was a rising
star in the country music world until he got caught up in the seedy
side of the show business lifestyle, hitting rock bottom as a
convicted junkie. However, he has not only cleaned up his act, but
his CD’s since coming out of jail have had an urgency to them
thanks to the experiences that he faced.
Earle’s latest CD,
Transcendental Blues, sort of ups the ante stylistically by
adding musical pieces not normally found in alt-country. Now,
adding a rock element to country music is nothing new, but on the
opening track which is the title song, Earle mixes mid-60’s
Beatles-influenced psychedelia and melds it with his patented
country sound. The effect of Earle’s country twang over a swirling
psychedelic rhythm is definitely an ear opener.
And if you didn’t get the point, the second song, “Everyone’s In
Love With You” sounds even more Beatlesesque, complete with fade
outs and fade ins and backward guitar and vocals. However, before
you start calling this CD,
Steve Earle’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the next two songs,
“Another Town” and “I Can Wait” bring us back to more familiar
Earle territory, the former being a country-rock stomper, the
latter a plaintive ballad.
But don’t get too comfortable yet. Earle has a few more curves
to throw at the listener. The eerie “The Boy Who Never Cried” is a
dirge that comes off sounding like an odd, old fable. Then there
are “Steve’s Last Ramble” and “Galway Girl”, which are songs that
Earle recorded in Dublin, Ireland. With the help of local
musicians, these songs are complete with fiddles, accordions and
banjos. They fit on this CD like a glove, since after all, country
music was influenced by Irish traditional music. Nevertheless, I
can’t imagine Earle doing a jig.
The rest of the songs range from the traditional (“Until The Day
I Die” is a bluegrass number that sounds like a leftover track from
Earle’s previous CD, which was homage to bluegrass.) to straight
aheard rock (“All My Life” sounds as if it could have been lifted
from a Mick Taylor era Rolling Stones album).
However, what I think are the two best songs on
Transcendental Blues have nothing to do with stylistic
departures. “Lonelier Than This” is a song of lost love that Earle
sings with great conviction. Then, there’s the closer, “Over Yonder
(Jonathan’s Song)”, which thoughtfully depicts a convict’s thoughts
before being put to death. Think of this as a folk song companion
piece to the film, “Dead Man Walking”.
If there’s a problem with
Transcendental Blues, I think that a couple songs could have
been left off to make this a more focused work. There have been
debates over whether an artist should use the extra space that CD’s
provide over records to add more songs. This is an interesting
topic because shorter CD’s come off seeming like rip-offs and
longer CD’s come off sounding added. For this CD, I think leaving
out “Wherever I Go” and “When I Fall”, which are not bad songs but
are a little weak compared to the rest, would improve this set.
Think of it as addition by subtraction. However, this does not
detract very much from
Transcendental Blues, which continues Earle’s streak of
wonderful releases.