Steve Earle – Townes

I agree with something Steve Earle says in the press material for his new album, Townes: That it is, quite simply, one of the finest albums he’s ever made. Earle—an iconoclastic singer/songwriter for more than two decades, and a godfather of the modern roots-rock scene—goes on to note that this is a difficult thing for him to admit, that one of his finest albums came not from a batch of his own material, but from a selection of cover songs. He needn’t feel ashamed by it; playing these songs reinvigorates him, and he sounds more creatively involved and daring than he has in some time.

The very concept of the album is antiquated. No one makes records like this anymore: An album-length tribute to a particular artist—in this case, of course, the late, great Townes Van Zandt; the closest antecedent in recent memory is Bruce Springsteen’s album of Pete Seeger songs, We Shall Overcome. Earle’s Townes is a slightly different animal—after all, Bruce was playing songs that were performed, not written, by the honored artist, whereas all the songs Earle plays were penned by Van Zandt himself—but the effect is very nearly the same: The artist, forced to look at his art from a different perspective, finds not only his roots, but also sees a way forward.

As such, Townes is an album that, at various moments, harkens to any number of past Earle records, while also pushing him into territory he’s never really explored. And it brings out the best in him; indeed, the highest praise I can afford the album is that, though it certainly honors the tremendous legacy of Van Zandt—how could it not?—it also brings out the best in Earle as a singer, producer, and storyteller. He honors the spirit of these songs, and he makes them his.

In fact, he seems to have made it his mission to arrange these songs in ways that are unexpected, but totally natural: Many of these performances interpret the songs in a different way than they’re usually performed, but they all work. And as such, the record turns out to be a marathon-length, encyclopedic set of roots, rural, and mountain music idioms.

Of course, that’s always been one of Earle’s virtues—the way in which he sees all roots music as one rather than imposing genre boundaries—and Van Zandt’s songs, pliable and resilient as they are, prove to be a catalyst for Earle’s creative restlessness. He sees no distinction between roots music old and new, between tradition and experimentation, and so Townes covers an astonishing amount of ground even as all the songs are united by the same spirit. At one end of the spectrum, there’s the sparse, ragged take on “Poncho and Lefty”—an outlaw ballad performed here with just acoustic guitar, hand percussion, and Earle’s innate sense of drama and his storyteller’s phrasing. At the other end, there’s “Lungs,” an edgy, tight rocker in which drum loops and Tom Morello’s guitar give the song a rock and roll blood transfusion.

Earle stretches out for some winding bluegrass and some driving blues, as well, but it’s the ballads that paint the clearest picture of what this record—and this man—are all about. Earle is nothing if not a fan first, a folk music enthusiast who just happens to think that Townes Van Zandt is the greatest, and Townes is his dissertation on the subject: A loving homage to a legendary artist, and a testament to just what the man’s music means to another, living legend. So what we have is the best of both worlds, a record that’s equal parts Van Zandt eloquence and Earle artistry—the sound not of mere hero-worship, but of real, honest to goodness inspiration.

Related posts:

1. Robert Earl Keen – The Rose Hotel
2. Lyle Lovett – Natural Forces

Tagged as: Country, Folk, Nashville