Tag: Steve Earle

Nanci Griffith’s Superstars on Letterman: “Desperados Waiting for a Train”

In 1998, Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Eric Taylor appeared on David Letterman’s stage to support a new release from Nanci Griffith.

There are not many times there has been such a collection of talent onstage together since July 21, 1998, when Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Jeff Walker and Eric Taylor appeared together on the Late Show With David Letterman. Griffith had just released the excellent album Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful). And the album featured an all-star version of Guy Clark’s song “Desperados Waiting For a Train.”

Only such an outstanding talent as Griffith could shine even while ceding so much of the song to these other legends of music. On both the album and the Letterman performance, she does not even sing solo until late in the song.

The songwriter Guy Clark starts off the song, and it is clear that the beautiful performance is all about respect. There is Griffith’s respect for Clark’s song and the legendary talent of the other singers. But there is also an amazing amount of respect from those legends for Griffith, coming together for this performance on both the album and on Letterman’s show.

Check out the performance of “Desperados Waiting for a Train” below.

Most who love music of this genre will recognize the big names here for their work as singers and songwriters: Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, and Jerry Jeff Walker. But you might or might not recognize Eric Taylor, who is probably the least well-known of the group. Taylor also was a well-respected Texas singer-songwriter, and his songs have been covered by people such as Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffith. He also was married to Griffith for 1976-1982. So it is also cool to see Griffith invite her ex for this amazing performance. Taylor passed away less than two years after this performance from liver disease.

Of the group on stage that night, we have also lost Nanci Griffith, Guy Clark, and Jerry Jeff Walker. Letterman clearly knew he was hosting a special gathering on his show at the time, but many may have missed it. We were certainly lucky to have the music of these folks, and extra lucky to have them together for this song.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    I woke up this morning, and none of the news was good: Steve Earle’s “Jerusalem” (Song of the Day)

    In 2002, Steve Earle released “Jerusalem,” about hope for the people in a troubled land that remains ever as troubled today.

    It is difficult to find any optimism out of what is going on right now in Israel and Gaza. But in 2002, during another period of darkness in the world, Steve Earle tried to find some hope in his song “Jerusalem,” the title track of his 2002 album. There, he sang a fine day where “all the children of Abraham / Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem.”

    And there’ll be no barricades then;
    There’ll be no wire or walls;
    And we can wash all this blood from our hands,
    And all this hatred from our souls    .

    At the time of the album’s release, William Bowers, who was not a fan of Earle generally, in a Pitchfork review mocked such a utopian take on the complicated situation in the Middle East. Bowers saw some attempts to follow John Lennon’s “Imagine” but finds such a plea ultimately doomed for a land divided by religion and race. He concludes, “the song is dang hard to take seriously.”

    Earle, though, realizes his song’s dream is a long-shot and, as he explains in the video below, that the dream may remain a dream until he dies. And in the lyrics, he sings, “maybe I’m only dreamin’ and maybe I’m just a fool.”

    It is foolish to think of any hope now during all of the horrors going on while people are suffering and dying. But maybe trying to imagine peace is not a bad thing to do, even if it feels futile at the moment.

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    Steve Earle Covers Justin Townes Earle’s “Harlem River Blues”

    Steve Earle has released a cover of “Harlem River Blues,” part of an upcoming album recorded in tribute to Earle’s late son, Justin Townes Earle.

    Steve Earle & The Dukes are releasing the album J.T. as a tribute to Earle’s son Justin Townes Earle, who passed away on August 20, 2020. Steve Earle has released the first song from the album, a cover of one of the younger Earle’s more popular songs, “Harlem River Blues.”

    J.T. will feature ten songs written by Justin Townes Earle. The album also will include a song that the father wrote for his son called “Last Words.”

    Earle’s cover of “Harlem River Blues” stays close to the original version, much as Earle has done on his tribute albums to close friends Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. Earle still allows the Dukes some leeway to inject joy into the music, making sure that the song is also a celebration of Justin’s life and career.

    “Harlem River Blues” originally appeared as the title track on Justin Townes Earle’s 2010 album Harlem River Blues. Below, check out Justin performing the song with the Americana All-Star Band at the 2011 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards.

    New West Records will release J.T. digitially on January 4, 2021, which would have been Justin Townes Earle’s 39th birthday. The CD and vinyl versions will be released on March 19, 2021. All of the artist advances and royalties from J.T. will be donated to a trust for the three-year-old daughter of Justin and Jenn Earle, Etta St. James Earle.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    You’ll Miss The Time You Waste

    Justin Townes Earle passed away on August 23, 2020, leaving behind an impressive catalog of music starting with a debut song on one of his father’s albums.

    Justin Townes Earle

    The first time I heard Justin Townes Earle’s voice was on the final song of his father Steve Earle’s 2003 album, Just An American Boy. The father gave his son the final track on the album on the son’s song, “Time You Waste.” Although I still had to wait several years for an album from the talented son, that wonderful debut led to a career of stellar music and albums. So, like many fans, I was heartbroken to learn that 2020 had claimed the life of Justin Townes Earle at the age of 38.

    The news sent me back to listen to many of his albums that I had in my collection, including from his debut EP Yuma (2007) through his much acclaimed Harlem River Blues (2010) through his personal exploration in Single Mothers (2014) and Absent Fathers (2015) to his latest The Saint of Lost Causes (2019). Earle had carved out his own niche, separate from his father, but still influenced by him as well as the singer-songwriter he was named for, Townes Van Zandt.

    Like his father and the man he was named for, Justin Townes Earle faced his own substance abuse problems throughout his life. We always rooted for him to succeed in controlling the demons, as his father had done. So we are heartbroken that he died even so much younger than his namesake, who had died at the age of 52.

    Thinking about the music of Justin Townes Earle in this age of the pandemic where we have lost so many, I keep going back to that debut recording of “Time You Waste.”

    Don’t think that I,
    I wouldn’t take every minute back
    If I could bring myself
    To live like that.

    Cause all the other ones,
    You only get one chance;
    It’s seeing life through the eyes of the innocent;
    So take it slow;
    No need in haste,

    Because the time you’ll miss
    Is the time you waste;

    Yeah the time you’ll miss, babe
    Is the time you waste.

    Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of Justin Townes Earle, including his wife and daughter, his mother, and his father Steve Earle.

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    Steve Earle’s “Ghosts of West Virgina” (album review)

    Steve Earle Ghosts

    Steve Earle’s latest album Ghosts of West Virginia features music that mostly came out of a play about a mine explosion that killed 29 miners in April 2010. The play was starting a successful run in New York until the coronavirus pandemic shut everything down. But fortunately we have Earle’s music in one of his strongest recent albums.

    Earle’s previous album that is most similar to Ghosts of West Virginia is his 1999 bluegrass album The Mountain. Like that album, Ghosts of West Virginia avoids some of the rock sound that appears on many of Earle’s other albums.

    For the most part, one might never guess that the album originated out of a play. Although the first song on the album, “Heaven Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” is reminiscent of a typical opening chorus for a play, the rest of the album stands on its own with strong songs and performances, such as for one of my favorite songs on the album,”The Mine.”

    Earle began working on the album after Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen contacted him about a play they were working on about the Upper Big Branch mine disaster called Coal Country. In making the album, Earle traveled to West Virginia with Blank and Jensen to interview survivors of the explosion for further inspiration.

    Earle, a liberal activist, has asserted that in making the album he wanted to try to find some common ground with people who might disagree with him politically. For this album, he explained he wanted to create  “a record that speaks to and for people who didn’t vote the way I did.”

    For Earle, though, using his art to explore other personalities and other views is nothing new. It is what an artist does. Earlier Steve Earle songs have humanized murderers (“Billy Austin”), death row prison guards (“Ellis Unit One”), outlaws (“Tom Ames’ Prayer”), and real-life American-turned enemy combatant John Walker Lindh (“John Walker’s Blues”). Although the Lindh song earned Earle some scorn in some corners, it is doubtful that anyone on either side of the political divide will find much argument with the humanity of Ghosts of West Virginia.

    Earle also has a history of generosity in giving space to other artists even if those artists may upstage him. For example, on his 1996 album, Earle sang a duet with Lucinda Williams on the final song, “You’re Still Standing There,” and it was only the strength of an amazing album that kept Williams from stealing the show. And on his 2003 live album Just An American Boy, Earle gave his son and emerging artist Justin Townes Earle the final spot with the son’s song, “Time You Waste,” announcing the arrival of a great talent.

    Here, on Ghosts of West Virginia, Earle does something similar, giving “If I Could See Your Face Again” — a standout song from the point of view of a miner’s widow — to Eleanor Whitmore of The Mastersons. Whitmore’s performance and the aching song breaks your heart (perhaps the added emotion comes from the fact that the Steve Earle & The Dukes album is the first since Earle lost his bassist and band member of 30 years, Kelley Looney).

    If there is any weakness to this Steve Earle album, it is the short runtime. Coming in at slightly less than thirty minutes, one wishes Earle could have added more music. By the time you become immersed n the world of this West Virginia mining disaster, the album ends. On the other hand, it is not such a bad thing that an album leaves the listener wanting more.

    What do you think of Ghosts of West Virginia? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    • ( Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

    Buy from Amazon