Anyway, Disc 14 is an artist very near and dear to my heart. The album is...
I Feel Alright
Artist: Steve EarleYear of Release: 1996
How I Came To Know It: I've known and appreciated Steve Earle the artist for a long time. His first album "Guitar Town" in 1986 is when I first listened to him. He came and went in my mind, but I got seriously into him in 1997 - the year after "I Feel Alright". "I Feel Alright" is me drillin' for gold.
How It Stacks Up: I have 13 Steve Earle albums. If there is one I am missing, rest assured I'll find it and buy it. Of those 13 Albums, "I Feel Alright" is up there in the top 3. Even the top 2.
Rating: 5 stars.
Steve Earle is a hard core country singer in the tradition of Johnny Cash, but with a rock edge that makes his style all his own. His albums have bluegrass, blues, rock, country and folk elements - and all these elements work.
"I Feel Alright" comes out a couple years after Steve Earle served time in the slammer for two years on drug related charges. Earle is a recovering heroin addict. If you haven't read last month's Rolling Stone, it is worth checking out the Steve Earle interview, which covers part of this period.
This album isn't the first "sober" album (that is Train A Comin') but I think it is the best at evoking the feel of someone with a lot of regret for the things he's done, but who hasn't lost his edge from that regret. It is an album that has hope for the future, but it is a hard-edged honest hope, resting on a foundation of hard-won experience. While not a concept album, taken together these 12 incredible songs are a work of art.
Some of the tracks are unabashed outlaw country-rock, including "I Feel Alright", "Hard Core Troubadour" and "The Unrepentant". These are drive your car with the top down and take on the world songs.
Others speak to loss and regret - a retrospective on all the loss that is generated when a person's life spins out of control. Loss that doesn't come back just because you manage to get ahold of the wheel again. "Hurtin Me, Hurtin You", "Now She's Gone" are aching tracks of a heartache entirely self-inflicted.
My favourite of these is "Valentine's Day" - a touching song about a man who has forgotten his sweetheart on the big day, and with no card and no rose, resorts to writing her a song. You hear it, and you feel proud as if you wrote it for your sweetheart (while at the same time making a note to yourself not to forget any anniversaries). If you can't write like Steve Earle (and few can) you better make sure you get a card.
I think the toughest song is "CCKMP" which stands for "Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain" - a song about how, for the heroin addict, only heroin will do. The song is plaintive, and painful, and has a low hum in the background that evokes both the feeling of numbness of heroin, and the longing for that numbness. It makes you feel - just a small bit - what it is like to be an addict, even when that addict is sober.
Lastly, the duet with Lucinda Williams "You're Still Standing There" introduced me to Lucinda Williams - another one of my favourite artists of all time.
So this album is incredible, the music, the lyrics, the connections, its place in Earle's career, and its ability to draw you out of what you know and appreciate "the other side of town".
When I am trying to hook people on Earle (which is often), I go for Guitar Town and this album. They are the gateway records that will make you an addict of Earle, just like I am.
Best tracks: all tracks
1 comment:
I love this album - I was urged to get into Steve Earle by my ex's mother (!), and I am glad that he is part of our collection.
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