I've gone on the record as dubbing Steve Earle the most disappointing rock and roller in the business. After an early burst of genius country, he followed that with a stint in jail for drugs, came out and recorded three of the greatest albums of the 1990s, Train a Comin' , I Feel Alright and El Corazon.
All three are super, but the one in the middle? If you wanted to call it the best album of the 1990s and say, well maybe top ten or so. Onstage Earle was on fire, I saw him every couple of months for years at Tramps and was systematically blown away. All the songs you know and love ("I Ain't Ever Satisfied" any one? How about that "Dead Flowers" cover?)
And then… and then he decided was Woody Guthrie, left Warner Bros and and and… and that's for another post.
This one is about Earle's upcoming Box Set, all three albums, a live album from the period, a live DVD from another show,
Earle told Billboard "I found my voice as a recording artist on those records. It was pretty much a flurry of activity; they were the first sort of burst of stuff I did after I didn't do anything for four and a half years."
The last time I saw Earle live was at the end of 2011, a terrible performance. Earlier that year I saw him play a classic solo set opening for Levon Helm.
All that is as may be, still this box set sounds awesome ands hould be bought by all of us who were there and most of us who weren't.