Son of Mr. Earle
* ALBUM REVIEWS | BLUEGRASS MIKEL TOOMBS * 02/25/99 The San Diego Union-Tribune (Copyright 1999) THE MOUNTAIN * STEVE EARLE AND THE DEL McCOURY BAND E-Squared * * * Country's hard-timer collides with the light-fingered pickers of * bluegrass' finest. * Steve Earle impishly introduces the album by threatening to recite the Mickey Mouse theme, then strums a few power guitar chords before he's trumped by the McCoury clan and band. At that point, everyone begins bringing it all back home. The Dylan reference is apt, because "The Mountain" recalls Bob's shocking rockin' folk forays of the mid-'60s (although, ironically, not his later, sweeter country efforts). The crude slur of Earle's vocals stands in contrast to the McCourys' subtle playing; at the * same time, his songs reflect a serious dedication to bluegrass and its founding father, Bill Monroe. (Earle, true to form, calls him Mr. Bill.) On the other hand, Earle is roundly outsung by the likes of Emmylou Harris, in the massive chorus for the all-star "Pilgrim," and Iris DeMent, who channels Linda Ronstadt as she duets on "I'm Still in Love With You."
The Return of Mr. Earle
U. Texas-Austin: CD REVIEW: Steve Earl and the Del McCoury Band's 'The Mountain' * 02/25/99 (c) 1999 Copyright U-Wire. All Rights Reserved. By Will Furgeson, Daily Texan (U. Texas-Austin) * AUSTIN, Texas -- Singer-songwriter Steve Earle has never been content to stick with one type of music. Earle started his career in rockabilly, moved to country, then developed a rock sound on 1988's Copperhead Road. He got sidetracked with a drug addiction, but came out of rehab in 1994 and further expanded, recording with the likes of the Supersuckers and the V-Roys. In his latest incarnation, Earle has enlisted The Del McCoury Band to back him up on The Mountain, a * bluegrass album that finds Earle covering new ground yet again. The sheer talent of the Del McCoury Band alone could make this a * strong album. Regarded as one of the leading forces in modern bluegrass music, the group creates an authentic sound with their skilled instrumentation, but the main reason The Mountain works is Earle's songwriting. His ability to write heartfelt music that exploits the * strengths of the bluegrass genre without resorting to tired and overused cliches gives the album a distinctly modern sound while preserving musical tradition. On the title track, Earle tells the story of a man and his connection to his surroundings, showing his ability to use a common theme (man's companionship with nature) to produce a moving and original song. The album contains many other great songs, such as "Pilgrim," a song Earle wrote for the funeral of a close friend, but the high point of The Mountain is "I'm Still In Love With You," a tender duet between Earle and Iris Dement. The limitation of Earle's nasal drawl is exposed when matched with the angelic quality of Dement's voice on this beautiful tale of lost love and misunderstanding. But as a testament to his songwriting, the listener gets used to his voice over the course of the album and grows to like it. For all the superb songs on the album, there are unfortunately some duds, such as "Paddy On The Boat" and the obligatory open road song, "Long, Lonesome Highway Blues." Despite these few weak songs, the album * is a strong example of bluegrass music at its finest. In The Mountain's liner notes, Earle praises the work of one of his primary influences, the late, great Bill Monroe. He goes on to confess that his goal for this album was to write at least one song that would * become a part of the rich history of bluegrass music, a song that would * be performed at bluegrass festivals long after he was dead. After listening to the album, one can't help but think that Earle might have * succeeded. Anyone who thinks that real bluegrass died with Monroe need only listen to this rich collection of songs to know that the future of the genre is in good hands with gifted musicians like the Del McCoury * Band and songwriters like Steve Earle.
Mr. Earle Rides Again
* Bluegrass thrives, despite country aficionados calling it a weed Jim Patterson * 02/25/99 The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Copyright 1999) *NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Not long before he died, bluegrass founder Bill * Monroe confided to country music star Ricky Skaggs that he was worried his brand of music was dying, too. *Monroe passed away in September 1996, but bluegrass hasn't. Skaggs and a handful of other well-known and not-so-well-known artists have seen to that. TD *Skaggs released his Bluegrass Rules! album in 1997 and followed it * up this year with Ancient Tomes. Nashville outlaw Steve Earle and * onetime Monroe band member Del McCoury also have new bluegrass albums that are superb. *Bluegrass has been stigmatized, Skaggs said. "It's Deliverance, it's The Beverly Hillbillies . . . * get-drunk-at-a-bluegrass-festival-and-fall-over kind of music. And it's not. There's so much more depth to it than that." Monroe should have known his music would survive. During his * lifetime, bluegrass weathered the rise of rock 'n' roll and the cold * shoulder of the country music industry, which still treats it like an embarrassing relative. *"This is the original alternative country music," Earle said. "It's fun. It's the most fun I have playing music." *Skaggs, 44, a former bluegrass prodigy who scored a string of No. * 1 country singles in the 1980s, said bluegrass deserves a larger role in the current country market. "Garth Brooks' music . . . may be the legs and the hands and the * head right now of country music, but I'm telling you, the heart and * soul of this music beats in tradition. It beats in bluegrass," said * Skaggs, whose new album includes updates of bluegrass numbers by Monroe and The Stanley Brothers. It got its name from Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, who invented the form in the 1930s. Fast, intricate and dominated by acoustic * strings and tight vocal harmonies, bluegrass became marginalized in * the 1950s when country music artists reacted to the rise of rock 'n' roll by putting more emphasis on drums and electric guitars. *Bluegrass, still primarily acoustic and drumless, benefited from * the folk music revival of the 1960s and has developed separately from * the rest of country music ever since. It is popular enough today to support more than 500 music festivals each summer. It's also blessedly free of having to kowtow * to radio programmers, because country music stations won't play * bluegrass. "Back in the '50s, you'd hear Bill Monroe and Flatt Scruggs and Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff all on the same station," McCoury said. * "Then, of course, bluegrass and country got segregated as years went by." The result is that outside of live shows and an occasional public * radio station broadcast, it's hard to hear bluegrass music without buying an album. That's a shame, given the deep talent pool in * modern bluegrass. New albums by McCoury, master dobro guitarist Rob Ickes and J.D. Crowe and the New South illustrate the diversity and excellence of * modern bluegrass. Ickes interprets Herbie Hancock on his jazzy Slide City album, while Crowe and his band play hard-country Merle Haggard and Charley Pride hits on Come on Down to My World. The Family, a new album by the Del McCoury Band, shows the best * current bluegrass band and singer at the top of their game. The Del McCoury Band also backs Earle on his album, The Mountain. *For Earle, a gifted songwriter who has hopscotched across folk, * rock and country over the years, making The Mountain presented a * writing challenge and an opportunity to record the kind of country * music he loves. Earle, 44, said he no longer cares about what's going on with * mainstream country music, and when he goes out in Nashville, it's to * listen to bluegrass. *For those looking to get a taste of bluegrass, a good starting place is the newly released second volume of Vanguard's Generations * of Bluegrass featuring everything from classics of The Osborne Brothers and Monroe to contemporaries like Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Skaggs. *"It's a little hard to convince people to give bluegrass a try," Skaggs said. *"Throw away everything you've ever heard about bluegrass. This is a new day, there are new musicians. You've got people like Del McCoury, Blue Highway, Alison Krauss - there's great musicians out there bringing a quality music that has substance, it has heart and soul. . . .
Bride of Mr. Earle
* Country-Rocker Does Bluegrass Proud
---
By Craig Havighurst
* 02/26/99
The Wall Street Journal
(Copyright (c) 1999, Dow Jones Company, Inc.)
* Steve Earle and Del McCoury make unlikely compadres, musical or
otherwise. Mr. Earle, 44, a veteran singer/ songwriter from the
* roughneck school of country-rock, has a ragged drawl and a past scarred
by heroin. Mr. McCoury, 60, could pass for an Ozark Mountain preacher
with his fabulous pompadour. His wondrously high, clear voice has
* distinguished him through a 40-year career in bluegrass that included
time in Bill Monroe's band. But by virtue of Mr. McCoury's ear for
great
songs and Mr. Earle's uninhibited enthusiasm for American roots music
of
all varieties, these two began to forge a friendship and a musical
alliance after Mr. McCoury recorded one of Mr. Earle's songs on his
1992
record "Blue Side of Town."
Both live in Nashville, and bridges were built between them by Mr.
McCoury's sons Ronnie, 31, and Rob, 27, who play mandolin and banjo
respectively in the Del McCoury Band. Ronnie would invite Mr. Earle to
sit in at live gigs and try out new songs, and when Mr. Earle recorded
his 1997 "El Corazon," he used the McCoury band to give one of the
tunes
* a bluegrass touch. All this collaboration has culminated in Mr. Earle's
driving, soulful new recording called "The Mountain," on his E-Squared
label. Almost simultaneously, the Del McCoury Band has released "The
* Family," the fourth CD in its current configuration, and a bluegrass
purist's delight.
TD Since 1995, when he completed a rehab program he says saved his
life,
Mr. Earle has been living through a personal and artistic renaissance.
"The Mountain" is the fourth in a string of exceptional records. "I
Feel
* Alright" and "El Corazon" were folk-rock projects that burned with the
same outlaw twang that infused Mr. Earle's best 1980s records,
"Copperhead Road" and his debut, "Guitar Town," but with a lyrical
grace
and depth that sent his stock soaring among critics and fellow
songwriters.
It was 1995's "Train a Comin'," however, that really demonstrated
Mr.
Earle's grasp of the primal American genres: folk, hillbilly and blues.
Because it was an all-acoustic album, executed with the help of some of
* the best instrumentalists from the caverns of real country music, it
offered a depth of texture that electric records can hardly muster.
Norman Blake played guitar. The equally sublime Peter Rowan chopped on
the mandolin. And the late Roy Huskey Jr., to whom "The Mountain" is
dedicated and who Mr. Earle calls "the best doghouse bass player that
ever lived," established the thundering bottom.
How do you get a better band than that? You strike a deal with the
Del McCoury band, who has the edge only in that it's been a unit since
1992 and plays with a drive and tightness that boggles the mind in a
live setting. Besides the father and sons, the group includes
26-year-old Jason Carter on fiddle and Mike Bub, 34, who looks like a
cheerful Irish linebacker, on bass. They wear dashing suits and play
* around one microphone, the way bluegrass was invented, adjusting sound
levels through proximity to the mike. The resulting trade-off of solos
is set to a graceful choreography of men weaving around each other,
keeping the instruments out of each other's way, leaning in close to
sing. It's an apt visual metaphor for the music itself.
After playing with the McCourys one night at Nashville's Station Inn
* ("bluegrass ground zero," he calls it), Mr. Earle made up his mind to
* make a record of all original bluegrass material. A man who takes the
craft of writing extremely seriously, he set a deadline for himself and
knocked out 14 top-notch songs.
The record kicks off with a locomotive of a song about a locomotive
called "Texas Eagle." Bright detail and well-earned nostalgia (the
story
is autobiographical in every detail) breathe new life into the
venerable
train song. And throughout the CD, we hear an insightful blending of
tried-and-true lyrical hooks and traditional melodies with Mr. Earle's
own gift for narrative. "Train a Comin'" contained a visceral, poetic
Civil War song, and so does "The Mountain": "I am Kilran of the 20th
Maine, and we fight for Chamberlain/ Cause he stood right with us when
the Johnnies came like a banshee in the wind."
Also worth noting is "I'm Still in Love With You," a lovely
honky-tonk song that doesn't put Mr. Earle's voice to best use but
nonetheless
The Resurrection of Mr. Earle
Discs; Earle reaches `Mountain' * 02/26/99 Boston Herald (Copyright 1999) *STEVE EARLE AND THE DEL McCOURY BANDThe Mountain (E-Squared)4 stars *Singer-songwriter Steve Earle's near-miraculous personal and artistic recovery from the depths of heroin addiction culminates here * in a pure bluegrass album that's not only thoroughly authentic, but thoroughly great. *Joining forces with Del McCoury's Cadillac of bluegrass bands, Earle writes a passel of tunes that would have brought a smile to the face of the late Bill Monroe, who inspired them. Though these songs * are ever mindful of bluegrass tradition, they nevertheless are full of the drama, detail, violence and psychological insight that have always been Earle's stock in trade. Indeed, the "Harlan Man/The Mountain" suite is, as Earle asserts in the liner notes, one of the best things he's ever written. And while Earle's rot-gut-and-rusty-nails gargle might come as something of a shock to bluegrassers raised on generations of high lonesome tenors, it's a refreshing change for a genre in which adherence to tradition and polish can disguise a lack of soul. Earle proves conclusively that that's one problem he will never have. - KEVIN R. CONVEY
Mr. Earle Strikes Again
* Bluegrass gets jolt from Ricky Skaggs and Steve Earle By Jim Patterson Associated Press writer * 02/27/99 Deseret News Copyright (c) 1999 Deseret News Publishing Co. * NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Not long before he died, bluegrass founder Bill * Monroe confided to country music star Ricky Skaggs that he was worried his brand of music was dying, too. * Monroe passed away in September 1996, but bluegrass hasn't. Skaggs and a handful of other well-known and not-so-well-known artists have seen to that. TD * Skaggs released his "Bluegrass Rules!" album in 1997 and followed it * up this year with "Ancient Tomes." Nashville outlaw Steve Earle and * onetime Monroe band member Del McCoury also have new bluegrass albums that are superb. * Bluegrass has been stigmatized, Skaggs said. "It's 'Deliverance,' it's 'The Beverly Hillbillies' ... * get-drunk-at-a-bluegrass-festival-and-fall-over kind of music. And it's not. There's so much more depth to it than that." Monroe should have known his music would survive. During his lifetime, * bluegrass weathered the rise of rock 'n' roll and the cold shoulder of * the country music industry, which still treats it like an embarrassing relative. * "This is the original alternative country music," Earle said. "It's fun. It's the most fun I have playing music." * Skaggs, 44, a former bluegrass prodigy who scored a string of No. 1 * country singles in the 1980s, said bluegrass deserves a larger role in the current country market. "(Garth Brooks') music ... may be the legs and the hands and the head * right now of country music, but I'm telling you, the heart and soul of * this music beats in tradition. It beats in bluegrass," said Skaggs, * whose new album includes updates of bluegrass numbers by Monroe and The Stanley Brothers. It got its name from Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys who invented the form in the 1930s. Fast, intricate and dominated by acoustic strings and * tight vocal harmonies, bluegrass became marginalized in the 1950s when * country music artists reacted to the rise of rock 'n' roll by putting more emphasis on drums and electric guitars. * Bluegrass, still primarily acoustic and drumless, benefited from the * folk music revival of the 1960s and has developed separately from the * rest of country music ever since. It is popular enough today to support more than 500 music festivals each summer. It's also blessedly free of having to kowtow to radio * programmers, since country music stations won't play bluegrass. "Back in the '50s you'd hear Bill Monroe and Flatt Scruggs and Ernest Tubb and Roy Acuff all on the same station," McCoury said. "Then * of course (bluegrass and country) got segregated as years went by." The result is that outside of live shows and an occasional public * radio station broadcast, it's hard to hear bluegrass music without buying an album. That's a shame, given the deep talent pool in modern * bluegrass. New albums by McCoury, master dobro guitarist Rob Ickes and J.D. Crowe and the New South illustrate the diversity and excellence of modern * bluegrass. Ickes interprets Herbie Hancock on his jazzy "Slide City" album, while Crowe and his band play hard country Merle Haggard and Charley Pride hits on "Come on Down to My World." "The Family," a new album by The Del McCoury Band, shows the best * current bluegrass band and singer at the top of their game. The Del McCoury Band also backs Earle on his album, "The Mountain." * For Earle, a gifted songwriter who has hopscotched across folk, rock and country over the years, making "The Mountain" presented a writing * challenge and an opportunity to record the kind of country music he loves. Earle, 44, who said he no longer cares about what's going on with * mainstream country music, and when he goes out in Nashville, it's to * listen to bluegrass. * For those looking to get a taste of bluegrass, a good starting place is the newly released second volume of Vanguard's "Generations of * Bluegrass" featuring everything from classics of The Osborne Brothers and Monroe to contemporaries like Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Skaggs. Also worth seeking out is last year's "Clinch Valley Country" by legendary band leader Ralph Stanley. Country singers including Marty Stuart, Vince Gill and Patty Loveless perform on the double CD of duets. * "It's a little hard to convince people to give (bluegrass) a try," Skaggs said. * "Throw away everything you've ever heard about bluegrass. This is a new day, there are new musicians. You've got people like Del McCoury, Blue Highway, Alison Krauss -- there's great musicians out there bringing a
Mr. Earle Strikes Yet Again
* Making Hay in the Field of Bluegrass
* Country stars Ricky Skaggs and Steve Earle go back to their roots with
releases that are indicative of the folk genre's rising status.
MICHAEL McCALL* 02/28/99
Los Angeles Times
Copyright 1999 / The Times Mirror Company
NASHVILLE -- In the fall of 1997, Ricky Skaggs placed himself at a
crossroads that changed the direction of his career and his music. As
* Atlantic Records prepared to issue Skaggs' next country music album, the
Kentucky-born singer and mandolinist asked the record company if he could
* simultaneously release an all-bluegrass album on an independent label.
*Skaggs thought the bluegrass album might help raise his profile. His
record sales had slipped significantly in the 1990s, and the onetime
million-seller no longer received any significant airplay on the singles
he released to country radio.
TD
He hoped the concurrent release of two albums might stir interest in
him. Atlantic Records agreed and allowed the move to be made. The result
* surprised everyone, from country music insiders to longtime bluegrass
enthusiasts.
"Life Is a Journey," Skaggs' country album, was released by Atlantic
* in September 1997 and barely sold 20,000 copies. Meanwhile, "Bluegrass
Rules!" was released a month later in a joint partnership between Skaggs
and the independent label Rounder Records. It sold more than 150,000
* copies and received the Grammy for best bluegrass album on Wednesday.
"I am unbelievably overjoyed at what's happened," Skaggs says,
beaming. Because of those sales figures, Skaggs has left Atlantic and has
* devoted himself to playing bluegrass music full time again.
*For the bluegrass community, Skaggs' success is just one high-profile
example of a growing interest in the traditional American musical genre,
which was founded in the 1940s when the late Bill Monroe formed his famed
* Bluegrass Boys band, which included Earl Scruggs on banjo and Lester
Flatt on guitar and vocals.
*With Skaggs now fully back in the bluegrass fold, he has joined
singer-fiddler Alison Krauss as one of the leading young proponents of
the genre. But if Skaggs and Krauss are the modern-day king and queen of
* bluegrass, the dominion they rule is bigger and healthier than it has
* been since the early 1960s, when bluegrass' popularity spread beyond the
* Southeast as part of the folk-music boom.
*Dan Hayes, executive director of the International Bluegrass Music
Assn., characterizes the late 1990s as "a particularly golden time in
* bluegrass music history," adding that there is more good talent playing
to larger audiences and selling more albums than at any time in recent
history.
*Besides Skaggs' recently released album "Ancient Tones," the bluegrass
community will be watching closely the reaction to two other
just-released collections: the Del McCoury Band's "The Family" (on
* Skaggs' Ceili Music label) and Steve Earle's collaboration with the
McCoury Band, "The Mountain" (on Earle's own E-Squared label).
Earle's album is certainly the most surprising and talked-about
* bluegrass entry since Skaggs' return to the fold a year and a half ago.
*"The Mountain" pairs Earle with the most awarded bluegrass group of
the '90s. The acoustic album features a drum-less band, built
* bluegrass-style around mandolin, fiddle, banjo, acoustic guitar and
stand-up bass. All the songs were written by Earle, who penned most of
them with the McCoury Band in mind.
In their way, the three high-profile albums by Skaggs, Earle and the
McCoury Band are decidedly distinct from one another. Skaggs and Kentucky
Thunder's "Ancient Tones" collection looks backward by largely drawing on
* mountain music classics originally performed by such bluegrass patriarchs
as the Stanley Brothers, Flatt Scruggs and Bill Monroe. Rather than
calling on nostalgia, though, Kentucky Thunder plays the songs with a
dynamic intensity that highlights the timelessness of the music.
On the other hand, Earle's "The Mountain" features original songs
written by the singer-songwriter, who further displays his mastery by
* both perfectly mimicking archetypal bluegrass tunes ("Carrie Brown") as
well as expanding the genre to take on new topics and influences ("Paddy
on the Beat"). By coincidence, both Skaggs and Earle wrote a new
instrumental with a reference in the title to Connemara, a scenic rural
area in western Ireland.
The Del McCoury Band straddles Skaggs' classicism and Earle's forward
* progress. By combining a stunning vocal workout on the classic bluegrass
gospel song "Get Down on Your Knees and Pray" with a bristling version of
the pop oldie "Nashville Cats" and stellar new songs, McCoury pays
respect to the past while casting an eye to the future.
*"Bluegrass has been a component of my music for as long as I've been
* making records," Earle
Re: Mr. Earle Strikes Yet Again
No offense dude, but if you plan on sending a butload of mail to the lists
could you do it at once? I stopped reading them after number five.
At 05:11 PM 2/28/99 -0500, you wrote:
* Making Hay in the Field of Bluegrass
* Country stars Ricky Skaggs and Steve Earle go back to their roots with
releases that are indicative of the folk genre's rising status.
MICHAEL McCALL* 02/28/99
Los Angeles Times
Copyright 1999 / The Times Mirror Company
NASHVILLE -- In the fall of 1997, Ricky Skaggs placed himself at a
crossroads that changed the direction of his career and his music. As
* Atlantic Records prepared to issue Skaggs' next country music album, the
Kentucky-born singer and mandolinist asked the record company if he could
* simultaneously release an all-bluegrass album on an independent label.
*Skaggs thought the bluegrass album might help raise his profile. His
record sales had slipped significantly in the 1990s, and the onetime
million-seller no longer received any significant airplay on the singles
he released to country radio.
TD
He hoped the concurrent release of two albums might stir interest in
him. Atlantic Records agreed and allowed the move to be made. The result
* surprised everyone, from country music insiders to longtime bluegrass
enthusiasts.
"Life Is a Journey," Skaggs' country album, was released by Atlantic
* in September 1997 and barely sold 20,000 copies. Meanwhile, "Bluegrass
Rules!" was released a month later in a joint partnership between Skaggs
and the independent label Rounder Records. It sold more than 150,000
* copies and received the Grammy for best bluegrass album on Wednesday.
"I am unbelievably overjoyed at what's happened," Skaggs says,
beaming. Because of those sales figures, Skaggs has left Atlantic and has
* devoted himself to playing bluegrass music full time again.
*For the bluegrass community, Skaggs' success is just one high-profile
example of a growing interest in the traditional American musical genre,
which was founded in the 1940s when the late Bill Monroe formed his famed
* Bluegrass Boys band, which included Earl Scruggs on banjo and Lester
Flatt on guitar and vocals.
*With Skaggs now fully back in the bluegrass fold, he has joined
singer-fiddler Alison Krauss as one of the leading young proponents of
the genre. But if Skaggs and Krauss are the modern-day king and queen of
* bluegrass, the dominion they rule is bigger and healthier than it has
* been since the early 1960s, when bluegrass' popularity spread beyond the
* Southeast as part of the folk-music boom.
*Dan Hayes, executive director of the International Bluegrass Music
Assn., characterizes the late 1990s as "a particularly golden time in
* bluegrass music history," adding that there is more good talent playing
to larger audiences and selling more albums than at any time in recent
history.
*Besides Skaggs' recently released album "Ancient Tones," the bluegrass
community will be watching closely the reaction to two other
just-released collections: the Del McCoury Band's "The Family" (on
* Skaggs' Ceili Music label) and Steve Earle's collaboration with the
McCoury Band, "The Mountain" (on Earle's own E-Squared label).
Earle's album is certainly the most surprising and talked-about
* bluegrass entry since Skaggs' return to the fold a year and a half ago.
*"The Mountain" pairs Earle with the most awarded bluegrass group of
the '90s. The acoustic album features a drum-less band, built
* bluegrass-style around mandolin, fiddle, banjo, acoustic guitar and
stand-up bass. All the songs were written by Earle, who penned most of
them with the McCoury Band in mind.
In their way, the three high-profile albums by Skaggs, Earle and the
McCoury Band are decidedly distinct from one another. Skaggs and Kentucky
Thunder's "Ancient Tones" collection looks backward by largely drawing on
* mountain music classics originally performed by such bluegrass patriarchs
as the Stanley Brothers, Flatt Scruggs and Bill Monroe. Rather than
calling on nostalgia, though, Kentucky Thunder plays the songs with a
dynamic intensity that highlights the timelessness of the music.
On the other hand, Earle's "The Mountain" features original songs
written by the singer-songwriter, who further displays his mastery by
* both perfectly mimicking archetypal bluegrass tunes ("Carrie Brown") as
well as expanding the genre to take on new topics and influences ("Paddy
on the Beat"). By coincidence, both Skaggs and Earle wrote a new
instrumental with a reference in the title to Connemara, a scenic rural
area in western Ireland.
The Del McCoury Band straddles Skaggs' classicism and Earle's forward
* progress. By combining a stunning vocal workout on the classic bluegrass
gospel song "Get Down on Your Knees and Pray" with a bristling version of
the pop oldie "Nashville Cats" and stellar
Re: Mr. Earle Strikes Yet Again
No offense dude, but if you plan on sending a butload of mail to the lists could you do it at once? I stopped reading them after number five. No offense, Mr. Dude, but Phil's postings of the key ongoing alt.country news have been a much-loved part of this list for years--and it's only lately he's resoreted to doing them once a week instead of every day. here's an idea--live with it. Barry M.
Phil rawks! (was Mr. Earle Strikes Yet Again)
No offense dude, but if you plan on sending a butload of mail to the lists could you do it at once? I stopped reading them after number five. No offense, Mr. Dude, but Phil's postings of the key ongoing alt.country news have been a much-loved part of this list for years--and it's only lately he's resoreted to doing them once a week instead of every day. here's an idea--live with it. Barry M. I agree with Barry - and I know that most everyone on the list feels the same. Phil puts a lot of time and energy into sending these clips to the list. I for one appreciate his effort and look forward to reading these clips. Please don't stop, Phil. marie
Mr. Earle amd Ms. Willis
EARLE CLIMBS THAT MOUNTAIN * TALENTED ARTIST TURNS HIS ATTENTION TOWARDS BLUEGRASS BY FISH GRIWKOWSKY * 02/15/99 The Edmonton Sun (c) Copyright 1999 The Edmonton Sun. All Rights Reserved. * THE MOUNTAIN: Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band (ADA) -- If you bought El Corazon in '97, one of the tracks you'll probably recall is I * Still Carry You Around, Earle singing with a competent bluegrass band in tow. This is an album full of just that, the band being Del McCoury's. TD This is not Copperhead Road. Earle is a strange animal. A song such as More Than I Can Do from I Feel Alright, for example, showed just how happy he was to be out of prison, rocking down the house. Last album he spent more than a little time mourning the death of folk icon Townes Van Zandt. The result was great. Now he's taken the Marty Stuart approach and immersed himself in a musical project. * If you like bluegrass, which you should, this a fine collection. The usual all-star cast is there: Emmylou and Gillian Welch, along with Stuart and Sam Bush on the subdued last track, Pilgrim. The tone is varied and the playing competent. Though Earle works best in a kind of Springsteen mode, harmonicas and guitars fighting for * attention, his nasally voice suits bluegrass, especially when McCoury joins him in harmony a la Bill Monroe or Flatt and Scruggs. It's a good album, but at the same time it's not going to be for everybody. * Music's past is filled with wonderful genres, and bluegrass is one of them, certainly better than the dorky anthems that proliferate the radios of North America at the end of this century. Earle told me once that he was going to do a CD this year about the path music had taken since Jimmie Rodgers left the scene. Looks like he stopped in the Ozarks for a while. Good on him. (4) - - - WHAT I DESERVE: Kelly Willis (Ryko) -- Kelly Willis is one of the very few artists (Emmylou Harris, Junior Brown, Lyle Lovett) who can please ears on both sides of the country fence. Her lyrics are straightforward enough to please hot country sensibility and deep enough to deserve a "yup" from the y'alternative pumpkin patch. It ain't all empty and happy, but it ain't all painfully gritty and real either. So what we have here is a sort of white flag, a truce between two distinct and uncommunicative sides. Which mostly turns out well. Kelly Willis is also a singer, besides all this labelling, and her voice, though decent, can take some getting used to. She has a meandering style, one that never strays too far, so there is also a homogeny to What I Deserve that requires a second or third listen to pick up on the subtlety. But Cradle of Love really shows off her voice with a kind of sentimentality (without the cheese) that Karen Carpenter often hit. She sings mostly about relationships, ill and healthy, newborn and gone, which is what all good country is about. There's a track called Talk Like That that hits your heart in a very different way than the next song, Not Forgotten You, but this is Willis's skill and though her overall punch is a little soft, this is still a hell of a record for any laid-back occasion. (3 1/2)
Mr. Earle
* SOUND CHECK // Steve Earle turns to bluer pasture * 02/19/99 The Orange County Register REVIEW COUNTRY * Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band "The Mountain," E-Squared *If you're going to cross the country-folk-rock line and do your * first pure bluegrass album, it doesn't hurt to bring along one of * the top bluegrass bands in the business. *Steve Earle's music has always had shadings that pointed to this, though, so it's no surprise that his latest effort, "The * Mountain," with the Del McCoury Band, is top-shelf bluegrass. It's a record that stands as much on the strength of Earle's songwriting as the McCoury family's fine pickin' and grinnin'. The genesis of the disc came in 1995 when Earle was touring with the acoustic combo of Peter Rowan, Roy Huskey Jr. and Norman Blake in support of his album "Train a Comin." Bill Monroe, the Father of * Bluegrass, strolled on stage one night uninvited and sang several songs with the band. Earle called it "the biggest thrill of my life" and probably would have dedicated this record to Monroe if not for the death of Huskey two years ago from lung cancer. At any rate, this music is worthy of Monroe, and that's no shallow compliment. Earle's best songs have always been exquisite in their * simplicity, a prerequisite to respectable bluegrass, and that quality abounds here, perhaps most strikingly in the title song. "The Mountain," a tale of life in the coal-mining business, resonates with a mournful blend of defiant pride and resignation. And Earle displays a knack for tapping into the cheerful desperation that has always defined southern mountain music in songs such as "Yours Forever Blue," "Leroy's Dustbowl Blues," "Lonesome Highway Blues" and "Pilgrim." Throughout, the instrumental work of the McCourys is exceptional, particularly the lead banjo breaks of Rob McCoury and the intricate mandolin work from Ronnie McCoury. The brightest light of the effort is "I'm Still in Love With You," a bittersweet duet with Iris Dement, whose sweet, fragile vocals draw a clever, comfortable contrast with Earle's gruff tone. Tongue in cheek, Earle says in liner notes he made this album for "immortality. I wanted to write just one song that would be * performed by at least one band at every bluegrass festival in the world long after I have followed Mr. Bill (Monroe) out of this world. Well, we'll see." *Chances are better than good that the close-knit bluegrass community will embrace this album and Earle will get his wish. *You might enjoy if you like: Bluegrass music, previous Steve * Earle. By GENE HARBRECHT The Register
