Train A Comin - Steve Earle

Steve Earle's first post-heroin record, Train A-Coming is a revelation, particularly given the raging, distorted squall of much of the preceding album, the fairly grim (in tone, not in quality) The Hard Way. Where that album piled feeding-back, echo-soused distorted guitars one atop the other from floor tiles to ceiling, sounding even more of a Rock Record than Copperfield Road, Earle's breakthrough album from 1988, Train A-Comin' strips everything right back. It is an acoustic driven, old time Country record. It is the sound of the young Earle sat strummin' in Guy Clarke's kitchen midway through James Szalapski's much-adored 1981 documentary feature ...  Read the complete review

This time last year, I reviewed the London gig, “Concert for a Landmine Free World,” and doffed my hat to the magnificent Steve Earle… To quote what I said then: “Having served time in prison for drug offences, Earle was released in 1994 and has since been living clean and sober, rebuilding his own life, and trying to right many of the wrongs in this world. He has been quoted as saying, “Anger and violence breeds more anger and violence,” referring to both the US penal system and current world conflict. As well as giving his support to the “Landmine Free World” project from the outset, Earle ...  Read the complete review