Jim writes:
>
> Which leads me to the (rhetorical?) question: Can anyone top Steve Earle
> for artist of the decade??
>
> When you put:
>
> Train a'comin'
> Feel Alright
> El Corazon
> the Mountain
>
back to back, etc.
I'd agree with that, if we're talking about alternative country, big tent
or small. But stepping away from it a bit, and using a freaking carnival
tent, I'd make Earle share his pedestal with Richard Thompson (though I
guess I'd make Thompson's decade end in the mid-90s). The point is that
for me these two artists are very similar -- masterful songwriters and
arrangers, killer vocals and guitar, and every song makes a point. Even
though critics and fans have huge expectations for these two, they seldom
issue a clunker, and their albums hang together as single works of art.
Two of the greatest records of the past dozen years -- Thompson's "Rumor
and Sigh" and Earle's "Train a Comin'." -- Terry Smith
