Steve Earle - El Corazon
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.47 You Save: $2.51 (31%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for El Corazon
Free Music Review: Hearts On Fire
Hit: 5 Stars
Steve Earle's fall from grace has been well documented, as was his recovery. I was working as a writer in Nashville when the stories about Earle begging for change outside of clubs were circulating. As the artist behind one of my favorite CD's of all time, "Copperhead Road," it disturbed me that a talent of this magnitude had dropped down so far.
"El Corazon" is the CD that changed that for good. Having gotten the past out of his system on "Train a'Coming" and "I Feel Alright," "El Corazon" finds him at a peak of songwriting, rediscovering his voice and reclaiming country from the world of hat acts. He brings in the Fairfield Four to channel Elvis Presley on "Telephone Road." Emmylou Harris drops in for vocals on "Taneytown." There's some near bluegrass on "The Other Side Of Town." And to top it off, Earle revisits his days as a musical bad boy by bringing in SubPop artists The Supersuckers to grunge up "NYC."
Earle also regains his social voice here. On the songs "Christmas In Washington," "Taneytown" and "Ft Worth Blues," Earle begins the turn into politics that would boil over into controversy once "Jerusalem" and "The Revolution Starts Now" were ultimately released. "Ft Worth Blues" is an eulogy to Towns Van Zandt, and a beautiful closer to the CD. It is, however, on "Christmas In Washington" that Earle measures up to Van Zandt's best work, as well as Woody Guthrie, the song's obvious inspiration. Decrying a nation's capitol where the Democrats sat frozen with fear after the Impeachment hearings were tossed and the Republicans began to overtly plot their revenge, Earle asks why no-one else seems to notice...or for that matter, care. It is such a potent song that even Joan Baez has covered it.
Although some here on Amazon have claimed "Christmas In Washington" is a weak song to lead "El Corazon," I respectfully disagree. It sets the voice of the CD into a troubadour mode, with "Ft Worth Blues" paying the perfect tribute at the end. In between, the stylistic mix shows that Steve Earle had overcome his long odds and recovered his rightful place as a singer and songwriter among the long lost country outlaws. A reminder that the Nashville establishment gave up on authenticity decades ago, "El Corazon" is music with a real heart.
Free Music Review: Personal and powerful
Hit: 5 Stars
Steve Earle may be an acquired taste for some, in that he hardly has a classic singer's voice, and he makes no effort to sand down the rough edges of that voice or of his music in general. But then, Dylan never did either. What I hear on "El Corazon" is an original musical viewpoint and top-notch writing skills.
Anyone who tries to shoehorn Earle into a country-singer corner has never listened to this album. Oh, he pays plenty of attention to his country roots, as in "I Still Carry You Around," and "The Other Side of Town." But then he hits you with two powerful and superbly delivered rockers, the menacing "Taneytown" (with great backing vocals from Emmylou Harris) and "NYC," complete with fuzz-tone guitar and distorted vocals.
Earle also displays a keen eye for the life of the common man and delivers his observations without a hint of condescension, as on "Telephone Road" ("workin' all day for the Texaco check/sun beatin' down on the back of my neck"). It's a terrific song, with its sharp eye for details and knack for capturing the rhythms of everday speech in song.
And if that's all not enough, there's poignancy and expressions of loneliness, truthfully delivered ("Somewhere Out There", "Poison Lovers," "Fort Worth Blues"), humor ("You Know the Rest") and of course, politics ("Christmas in Washington").
By now you get the idea: it's an album of surprises, a mix of musical styles that reveals Earle's musical mastery, not confusion. It's a welcome counter to the all too often programmed sounds of today and a reminder that Earle is among a group of fine musicians who are the real practitioners of country/roots music, not the packaged performers dominating the airwaves today.
Free Music Review: absolutely brilliant!
Hit: 5 Stars
Country music stinks. The current new stuff coming out of that secret cloning project in Nashville is spewing forth the shallowest, hokiest, inane, Michael-Bolton-with-pedal-steel garbage I've ever heard. That's not country. Real country has soul. This new stuff that comes out weekly by the truckload is nothing but tripe. Country music needs a savior. Country music has a savior. His name is Steve Earle.While 'new' country broke out in the early '90's, full of phony achy-breaky misery and grandma-pleasing Brooksian sincerity, Steve Earle was going through his own personal hell. Incarcerated for drug possesion, he did some heavy soul searching, and vowed to get his life together once he got out. Last year he completed his comeback with his best yet, El Corazon, which is one of the best albums you'll hear in any year.
This is Steve Earle's most optimistic record. He's kicked his drug habit, and he's on the level, with his heart intact, in fact stronger than ev! er. In his liner notes he puts it best: 'Heart is a dumb animal, muscle and blood. A pit bull on a mission and he's hangin' in like Gunga Din, good to the last drop of blood.' Unlike all the other phony country singers out there, Steve Earle's actually been to hell and back, and he's back, more inspired and ambitious than ever.
Free Music Review: A Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
Back when this album was released, I remember falling immediately under its spell. Years later and... it's only grown stronger. It may well be Steve's finest hour--that's a tough call, granted, and one that on another day, in another mood, I might quibble with myself. But here he covers all of the bases: acoustic-folk, heavy-duty rock 'n' roll, message music, story songs and ... forget it. Why explain the unexplainable? Just plug this sucker into the CD player and crank it: Buttressed by Emmylou Harris' haunting harmonies and Steve's own gritty delivery, the thud-thick, Crazy Horse-like chords of "Taneytown" will leave you on the floor. Same with "If You Fall": killer chords, killer vocals, killer lyrics .... followed by the birth of something grand: "I Still Carry You Around," the inspiration for Steve's collaboration with The Del McCoury Band, The Mountain. Another highlight is "Poison Lovers," a duet with Siobhan Kennedy that's just plain intoxicating--if you're like me, you'll be hitting the "repeat" button ad infinitum. And then, of course, there's Steve's incisive tribute to the late Townes Van Zandt, "Ft. Worth Blues." In short, rock 'n' roll, country, where ever the hell you classify Steve, music doesn't get any better than this.Free Music Review: An essential Steve Earle recording
Hit: 5 Stars
Steve Earle is an amazing artist with at least half a dozen five-star releases to his name. Deciding which one to review was a tough choice. I picked El Corazón because it demonstrates the breadth of Earle's talent better than any other.Earle has an almost encyclopedic grasp of American musical idioms. El Corazón covers the full breadth of this talent, ranging from the folk of 'Christmas in Washington', the rock of 'N.Y.C.', the bluegrass of 'I Still Carry You Around', the roots-country of 'The Other Side of Town' (a song which could easily pass as a Hank Williams cover), to the beautiful singer-songwriter styling of 'Ft. Worth Blues'.
As if the musical talent weren't enough, Steve Earle is one of the finest song writers in the business. Even if you don't agree with the leftist political sentiments he slips into many of his songs (or shovels, in the case of 'Christmas in Washington'), you'll find a depth and intelligence in Earle's lyrics that will surprise you, coming as it does from someone professing to be just a country boy.
Buy this CD and listen with an open mind. Pretty soon you'll be back for more.