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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > May > 12 > Entry
CD Review: Steve Earle, ‘Townes’ (New West)
Steve Earle
“Townes”
New West
A funny thing happened to Steve Earle recently: Barack Obama was elected president. Suddenly, the politics that defined the past few years of Earle’s career could be subsumed. Earle could get back to his first love: songwriters he would love to write as well as.
This is an exaggeration, of course. Surely Earle planned to do this 15-track tribute to Townes Van Zandt before Obama won. But if the reality of an Obama administration means nobody ever has to hear “Condi, Condi” again in favor of, say, “Brand New Companion,” so much the better. And who are we kidding? Most everyone with a beat-up acoustic guitar and a notebook worships Van Zandt, perhaps Texas’s ultimate songwriter’s songwriter.
It’s hard to tell if it takes guts to open such a tribute with “Pancho and Lefty” or it’s so glaringly obvious as to be a little too on the nose. Van Zandt’s best-known tune is also one of the most mystifying story songs ever written, a narrative as obtuse as it is riveting.
Sadly, the lyrics also veer toward incomprehensibility in Earle’s rough voice, a problem that plagues this well-curated set. Songs such as “White Freightliner Blues” and the otherwise excellent “Loretta” fare even worse, kicking into high gear when clearer backing vocals kick in (one voice belongs to Earle’s son Justin Townes Earle - Steve REALLY likes Townes a lot). Much like (in fact, exactly like) Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’s take on Van Zandt’s “Nothing,” which transformed that spare tune into a guitar thunder storm (just like Led Zeppelin used to do with the blues), Earle turns “Lungs” into an electric stomper, while “Delta Momma Blues” is acoustic beauty.
Reverently played and expertly arranged, “Townes” suffers only from Earle’s own weakness as a singer. And if this well-meaning album does nothing but points everyone back to Van Zandt’s recently re-released studio output, we all owe Earle a beer and a shirt with Townes’ face done Obama-HOPE style. B
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By Shirley
May 13, 2009 12:27 PM | Link to this
you lost all credibility when you said “Earle’s own weakness as a singer”. You must be nuts. Listen to the bonus CD when it’s just steve & guitar.
By Joe Gross
May 13, 2009 12:46 PM | Link to this
Shirley, thanks for writing. My copy did not have a bonus CD. I look forward to checking it out.
By Cottonwood
May 18, 2009 6:44 AM | Link to this
Agreed, you have no credibility. Get the wax out of your ears.
By Kelso King
May 18, 2009 9:22 AM | Link to this
I have not heard the new Steve Earle CD yet but look forward to doing so. I have to say “weakness as a singer” is not necessarily an artistic weakness, consider Townes himself. Many people might consider his voice atrocious but to me it is perfect, perfect for singing the songs he wrote, which no one else, except maybe Willie or John Prine, ever does justice to. Townes said that there are only two kinds of music, the blues and zippity doo dah. Although the previously released “Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt” had a few highlights, it was woefully full of zippity doo dah, particularly Ray Benson’s version of “If I Needed You,” which clearly demonstrated that even a lot of Townes’ admirers don’t really get it. I will look forward to hearing Steve Earle’s tribute and hope that it is successful in finding that inner part of our souls, where both darkness and beauty reside hand in hand. Long live Townes Van Zandt!
By ****
May 18, 2009 1:29 PM | Link to this
Why does it have to be that Joe has no credibility?
Why can’t it be that you simply disagree? That there’s room for disagreement and that Joe, who listens to a lot of music, thinks that Steve Early has a weak voice for the task at hand?
He didn’t call him a bad musician.
I own, know by heart, every studio song the man has ever recorded and many bootlegs.
95 percent of the time, raspy, nasaly and somewhat mumbly (is that a word?) works.
Sometimes, it doesn’t.
Anyway, just because Joe thinks it doesn’t work this time doesn’t mean he lacks credibility.
It’s like yelling over balls and strikes from the stands. You’ve got an informed opinion. So does Mr. Gross.