{"id":1648,"date":"2018-07-06T10:44:51","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T09:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/?p=1648"},"modified":"2018-07-06T10:48:25","modified_gmt":"2018-07-06T09:48:25","slug":"steve-earle-the-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/2018\/07\/06\/steve-earle-the-background\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Earle – The Background"},"content":{"rendered":"

With around three weeks until Steve Earle rolls his tour bus into Belfast, we take a look at whats inspired him, where he has come from and take a look at his most recent work. If you ever had any doubt about where\u00a0Steve Earle\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>musical roots are planted, his new collection,\u00a0So You Wannabe an Outlaw,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>makes it perfectly plain. \u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s nothing \u2018retro\u2019 about this record,\u201d he states, \u201cI\u2019m just acknowledging where I\u2019m coming from.\u201d \u00a0So You Wannabe an Outlaw<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is the first recording he has made in Austin, Texas.\u00a0 Earle has lived in New York City for the past decade but he acknowledges, \u201cLook, I\u2019m always gonna be a Texan, no matter what I do. And I\u2019m always going to be somebody who learned their craft in Nashville. It\u2019s who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the 1970s, artists such as Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, Billy Joe Shaver and Tompall Glaser gave country music a rock edge, some raw grit and a rebel attitude. People called what these artists created \u201coutlaw music.\u201d The results were country\u2019s first Platinum-certified records, exciting and fresh stylistic breakthroughs and the attraction of a vast new youth audience to a genre that had previously been by and for adults. In the eighties, The Highwaymen was formed by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. Their final album\u00a0\u201cThe Road Goes On Forever\u201d<\/em>\u00a0released in 1996 began with the Steve Earle song \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Right Hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Steve Earle\u2019s 2017 collection,\u00a0So You Wannabe an Outlaw<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em>\u00a0is an homage to outlaw music. \u201cI was out to unapologetically \u2018channel\u2019 Waylon as best as I could.\u201d says Earle. \u201cThis record was all about me on the back pick-up of a Fender Telecaster on an entire record for the first time in my life. \u00a0The singing part of it is a little different. I certainly don\u2019t sound like Waylon Jennings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI moved to Nashville in November of 1974, and right after that Willie Nelson\u2019s\u00a0Red Headed Stranger<\/em>\u00a0came out. I was around when Waylon was recording [the 1975 masterpiece]\u00a0Dreaming My Dreams.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Guitar Town<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Earle\u2019s 1986 breakthrough album) wound up being kind of my version of those types of songs,\u201d Earle recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new record started because T Bone Burnett called me and wanted a specific song to be written for the first season of (the TV series)\u00a0Nashville.<\/em>\u00a0It was for the character whose brother was in prison. So I wrote\u00a0\u2018If Mama Coulda Seen Me,\u2019\u00a0<\/strong>and they used it. Then Buddy Miller asked me to write another one for the show and I wrote\u00a0\u2018Lookin\u2019 for a Woman,\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0which they didn\u2019t wind up using. I\u2019d been listening to Waylon\u2019s\u00a0Honky Tonk Heroes<\/em>\u00a0again, and I decided to start writing in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Check out @lucinda_williams, @steveearle, & @dwightyoakam rehearse for their collaboration on \u201cDim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music)\u201d before the LSD Tour. ? @ms.emily.joyce<\/a><\/p>\n

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