Event
Steve Earle at The Egyptian Theatre Thursday, Aug 13th
In the strictest sense, Steve Earle isn't a country artist; he's a roots rocker. Earle emerged in the mid-'80s, after Bruce Springsteen had popularized populist rock & roll and Dwight Yoakam had kick-started the neo-traditionalist movement in country music. At first, Earle appeared to be more indebted to the rock side than country, as he played a stripped-down, neo-rockabilly style that occasionally verged on outlaw country. However, his unwillingness to conform to the rules of Nashville or rock & roll meant that he never broke through into either genre's mainstream. Instead, he cultivated a dedicated cult following, drawing from both the country and rock audiences.
From 1982 to 1985, Earle recorded a series of rockabilly tracks for Epic Records and then moved to MCA Records, where, in 1986, he released the roundly acclaimed Guitar Town. For this work, many critics hailed him as the missing link between the power of rock and the passion of pure hillbilly music. The title track became the highest-charting song of Earle's country career, making it all the way to No. 7 in 1986. In 1987, MCA released Earle's sophomore album, Exit 0. It, too, became an instant favorite of critics. A single from the album, "Nowhere Road," climbed to No. 20 on the country charts. The album Copperhead Road made its bow in 1988 and demonstrated Earle's growing interest in rock music and had a rock radio hit with the title track. In 1990, MCA released the much harder-sounding The Hard Way. It was followed the next year by the live album Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator. For the next four years, the singer all but disappeared from the music scene as his long simmering drug habit grew worse. In 1994, Earle was arrested and sent briefly to prison for possession of narcotics. He was paroled later that year after completing a rehabilitation program. Earke calls his break from recording his "vacation in the ghetto,". Winter Harvest Records released Earle's folksy, acoustic-oriented collection, Train a Comin', in 1995. Soon after, Earle formed his own label, E-Squared Records. His first album for the new label, I Feel Alright, came out in 1996 and combined elements of country, rock and rockabilly. The next year saw the debut of his El Corazon. Earle tipped his hat to bluegrass music in 1999 when he recorded The Mountain with the Del McCoury Band. In 2000, he released Transcendental Blues, also on E-Squared.
Earle has been an outspoken and tireless opponent of capital punishment. His "Ellis Unit One" is featured on the 1996 soundtrack of the film Dead Man Walking. In recent years, Earle also has written and performed poetry and fiction. He presented excerpts from his works in progress at the 2000 New Yorker Festival and published a short-story anthology Doghouse Roses in 2001. He also stirred up controversy with the song "John Walker's Blues," about John Walker Linde, an American who many considered a traitor for joining the Taliban. The biography Hardcore Troubador: The Life and Death of Steve Earle was published in 2003. in the summer of 2004, as the American occupation of Iraq dragged on and an upcoming presidential election loomed in the minds of many, Earle released The Revolution Starts...Now, an album of songs informed by the war in Iraq and the abuses of the George W. Bush administration. Washington Square Serenade (his first release for New West Records) was released in 2007 to critical and fan acclaim .
Earle is currently touring behind his May 2009 follow-up release on New West records, an album of Townes Van Zandt covers entitled Townes. In selecting the material on Townes, Earle sought the songs he was most personally connected to. Which are many: he began with a list too long to remember. That queue was winnowed down first to 28 semi-finalists and later to the final 15, which range from obvious choices like Pancho and Lefty and To Live is to Fly to relative obscurities like Colorado Girl and (Quicksilver Daydreams of) Maria. Theres a blues that doesnt advertise itself as such in Brand New Companion (Thats just me doin Townes doin Lightnin, Earle summarizes) and songs like Delta Momma Blues and White Freightliner Blues that on the surface are blues in name only. To Earle, Van Zandt was a bluesman at all times, whether the songs were shaped in that form or not, and that includes the rollicking White Freightliner Blues (here presented in bluegrass form) and even his spare and lovely guitar-and-vocals reading of Colorado Girl.
Through the years, the DGQ has been a breeding ground for new acoustic talent. Band alumni including guitarist Tony Rice, Nashville super session picker and Grammy Award winner, Mark O'Conner, Mike Marshall of the "Modern Mandolin Quartet" and Darol Anger of the "Turtle Island String Quartet." Grisman's bands have also had a strong impact on the new generation of musicians, like banjo phenomenon Bela Fleck who saw a traditional bluegrass instrument like the Mandolin being taken beyond the bounds of one idiom.
The current David Grisman Quintet includes David on mandolin, Jim Kerwin on bass, George Marsh on percussion, Enrique Coria on guitar, and Matt Eakle on flute.
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LocationThe Egyptian Theatre
700 W Main St
Boise, ID 83702
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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