#489 - Steve Earle - Guitar Town

Honestly, not much to say here. Not to say that this is a bad album, just not glaringly great despite the appearances of Bucky Baxter (steel guitar for others such as R.E.M., Ryan Adams, and Bob Dylan), Richard Burnett (guitarist and producer for the likes of Neil Diamond, Mark Knopfler, Billy Joel, and others), and Emory Gordy Jr. who played in Elvis Presley's TCB Band.

Steve Earle's Guitar Town is the quintessential "hit the road" country album. What sets it apart is that it provided country music that even rockers could enjoy. Earle offers us some okay guitar riffs (although the one towards the 2:00 mark here sounds like Orbison's "Pretty Woman") and songs about the everyman in Reagan era 1986. The title track is arguably the album's most well known song, but "Someday" (which also reminds me of my hometown much like it probably does for all listeners) was used in the film adaptation of The Bridge to Terabithia. Little trivia for you there. That's right....all I could muster up for this critique was that it was in a children's movie. The track "Hillbilly Highway" shows early signs of what was to come later with "Copperhead Road," which brings me to my main argument towards this album's inclusion on the list. Why not Copperhead Road? Why this album on the list of the 500 greatest albums? In my opinion, this album offers nothing but some old-fashioned country, steering wheel tapping tracks for a cool summer day, but does not make for a great album. Maybe Earle hadn't dabbled in heroin yet.

This week's cover song inclusion comes to you from this guy.

-d.

Hoo Boy…..

Where do I start. Should I jump right into how a record titled Guitar Town has absolutely no impressive guitar playing? Or how the terribly corny arrangements make every song sound vaguely like a Kidz Bop version of Put Me In Coach? I get that this was recorded at a crossroads in country music. The pop aspect was coming into play and soon America would be flooded with Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson cds. But that doesn’t excuse any of the garbage I just listened to.

Synthesizer really has no place in country, especially not in a song called Hillbilly Highway. That really kind of destroys any outlaw creditability the old Sun Records gang built up. This whole mess pretty much represents the antithesis of Gram Parsons. Overly thought out, yet underperformed. Over produced, yet underwhelming. The vocals are sloppy and lazy throughout. There’s no energy and some words are practically mumbled, that is when they’re even in tune. Occasionally there is actually a decent melody, but I quickly recognize it as being ripped straight from a Tom Petty song.

My Old Friend the Blues was clearly written to be played on jukeboxes in every redneck bar in the country. I actually have a soft spot for slow country ballads, probably from hearing them a lot growing up in a farm town. But this is everything that’s wrong with the genre. Insincere and juvenile, the lyrics would only seem deep to a child or someone who has received blunt force trauma to the head. Perhaps a mule kick. Yet it’s easily the most listenable song here. Let me bring up Parsons again. Compare this to the original version of Love Hurts. Hear the difference? If not, go get a dowel rod and a hammer. No really, we can wait. Alright, now hammer that shit straight through your ears because you don’t deserve them.

I can’t stress enough the level of suck on display here. It’s like someone decided “hey, I’m gonna try to be the next Willie Nelson, except without the brilliant songwriting or musicianship or originality or taste or soul or….”. It hurts me to listen to this. I’m angry at Steve Earle. I’m angry at the people who voted this into the top 500 (especially above ZZTop). I can’t fathom why this was ranked, or even why it was released in the first place. Often when a performance is truly breathtaking we refer to it as effortless, thanks to the immense talent of the performer. This time I use the word effortless because clearly, no effort was put into the making of this album.

-TFM