Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade (DIG)
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Free Music Notes for Washington Square Serenade (DIG)
Free Music Review: Bittersweet Serenade
Hit: 4 Stars
"Goodbye guitar town", sings Steve Earle in the song "Tennessee Blues", on his new album, "Washington Square Serenade". Earle may have left Nashville, but it is still in his rear view mirror, as he not only serenades his new home, New York City, but his new wife, Allison Moorer, who sings a duet with him on "Days aren't Long Enough".
Earle sings and plays with the joy and passion of a man who has found new love with both a woman and a city. But this album was made in George W. Bush's war weary America, and Earle expresses anger and frustration at the state of the Union in "Steve's Hammer", envisioning a time when, "kids don't die for gasoline".
A sense of contradiction runs through "Washington Square Serenade", from the hillbilly heroin in "Oxycontin Blues", to the image of "Jesus' sword" in "Way Down in the Hole". Earle's lyrics are brilliant in painting contrasting images of country and city, Heaven and Hell. A redtail hawk performs wingstands above Manhattan in "Down Here Below". An old man leans into the wind on 7th avenue "like he's pullin'a plow" in "Red is the Color".
Musically, the contrasts continue, as the album effectively combines mandolins and tape loops, good old boys and DJ's. Steve Earle skillfully weaves shimmering love songs with dark songs of loss on "Washington Square Serenade", creating an album that is bittersweet in tone and powerful in delivery.
Free Music Review: Rolling with the Changes
Hit: 5 Stars
Odd. Having followed Earle since the early days, this album shows that Earle has hit a different avenue. His move to NYC is well documented, but it's the affect it's had on the music that is most important. Musically Earle is more mellow here. After the firestorm that was the Revolution album, you had to wonder just where he was going to go. Thankfully it wasn't straight into the burning pit, instead he's veered up into the high atmosphere.
The mellow approach had meant Earles songs could shine, their melody, humor, and celebration can shine through. This isn't just another Earle album, there's definately something new going on here.
I won't run through all the tracks, it's a record that deserves to be heard all the way through. However, personally speaking, there is only one hole in the record, one track I wish I could tear out. So, City Of Immigrants was a single huh? Ouch! I'm not getting on with that very much, its message is far too simplistic for me, and the chorus is just annoying.
Thankfully, everything around it is just wonderful. This is the first Earle album I can honestly say can be played any time of the night and day. I've played it at 2 in the morning and at 6... it works.
You know, this is certainly the best Earle album for a long time - which is not to say what he's been doing has been poor. This is a mature record with a wave of contentment over top. It's fun, beautiful, and your foot taps. What more do you want?
Free Music Review: Strolling Down WASHINGTON SQUARE With Steve Earle
Hit: 4 Stars
Steve Earle has long been somewhat of an outcast in Nashville. Even though he is arguably one of the most important songwriters to come down the pike in the last 25 years, Music Row has often turned a cold shoulder in his direction (Fact is, Earle's last three labels have actually had to work him out of their pop departments instead of their country ones!). Maybe now, with a recent move to New York, Earle will get the recognition he so justly deserves. Much like Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Dwight Yoakam and Rosie Flores, Earle is more of a hybrid than anything, never really settling on any one style, instead mixing and matching, genre-hopping as he goes along. And what city would be better suited to fan that flame than N.Y.C.? Things kick off with "Tennessee Blues", an ode to his relocation. Never bitter, but always direct ("Fare thee well I'm bound to roam/This ain't never been my home"), Earle frames the song with a gentle acoustic arrangement and smooth, easy-going vocal. By the time he gets to the final "Goodbye, Guitar Town" you really are wishing him well! "Down Here Below" may start off about "Pale male the famous redtail hawk" and the freedom he exhibits as he soars "high above midtown Manhattan", but it quickly becomes a paean to the freedom Earle (as well as the rest of us) has; yes, it can be tough ("But life goes on down here below/And all of us mortals struggle so/We laugh and cry and live and die/That's how it goes"), but at least we have the chance to experience it all. Armed with an understated arrangement and gorgeous harmony vocals from wife Allison Moorer, this is the sort of track that shows off Earle at his varied best. I also REALLY love "Satelitte Radio"...there's an edgy quirkiness to the cut that's simply captivating. The arrangement is definitely alternative, but to limit it to Country would do it a major disservice. Jangling guitars are brilliantly balanced by swatches of hip-hop sequencing, while the vocal is equal parts fear, wonder, uncertainty and defiance, all captured with only the slightest variances in inflection. BRAVO! "City Of Immigrants" is another track where Earle's gift to meld (seemingly) disparate styles shines. Just picture a blend of earthy, all-American Folk and swirling World Beat, and you'll have this cut. A melting pot of styles and sounds, it salutes the greatest melting pot of all time, New York ("All of us are immigrants/Every daughter, every son"). "Sparkle And Shine" is a gorgeous ballad that is honest and heartfelt. There's a sense of both joy and awe in Earle's vocal that's downright touching. Lovely, plain and simple. "Come Home To Me" is the downside of a relationship, one that isn't working. While not as instantly affecting as "Sparkle And Shine", it's no less truthful. In fact, Earle delivers a vocal that is nakedly raw, wrapping itself around aching lyrics ("I stay up late, wake up alone/Aw, baby, baby, baby please come home to me"). Haunting. Earle next kicks things up a notch or ten with "Jericho Road." Propelled by simple, but driving, percussion, forceful acoustic guitar, harmonica and hand claps, the track swings out of the speakers, hypnotizing the listener like a delicate, yet beautiful, prism. Things get really down and dirty with "Oxycontin Blues." Earle melds one of his classic story/songs onto an almost militaristic bluegrass beat, and the results are chilling. Add gritty lyrics ("Now I'm headed nowhere but downhill/With the oxycontin blues"), and we have a track that's sort of like a musical road side pile-up....you want to look away...but you can't. The only track that doesn't work for me on WASHINGTON SQUARE SERENADE is "Red Is The Color". Droning on and on, the song just goes nowhere. "Steve's Hammer" is the only really overt return to Earle's more political leanings, but even he seems to be ready for the day when that's not who or what he's instantly identified with or as ("One of these nights I'm gonna sing a different tune"). Things wrap up with a wildly disparate pair of tunes, the glistening "Days Aren't Long Enough" and the ominous "Way Down In The Hole." "Days...." is simple and unadorned, a sweet duet with Moorer that celebrates their love. "Way Down..." is the flipside of the coin....darkly forboding, it makes it clear that all things good can turn on a dime ("When you walk through the garden/You gotta watch your back"). Ever the realist, Earle might be acknowledging the fact that, given his storied past, it's a day to day effort keeping the darkness from ever overtaking the light again. What more could a listener ask for than honesty like that?!? All in all, I can honestly say WASHINGTON SQUARE SERENADE is easily one of the strongest releases in Steve Earle's already sterling catalog. So, do yourself a favor, and take a stroll around the SQUARE (As with all my reviews, I'm giving the disc an extra half a star for including the lyrics). Free Music Review: Washington Sqaure Serenade
Hit: 5 Stars
Another stellar peformance by Steve Earl. He is an artist who keeps evolving and like wine gets better as he ages. Nothing is over done or over produced. Plain, simple and folksy.Free Music Review: Goodbye Copperhead Road, hello Times Square
Hit: 4 Stars
Back on his album El Corazón, Steve Earle joined the Supersuckers to sing a raucous number about leaving the hills of Tennessee and hitting a city where "there's always something going on." On his new CD, "Washington Square Serenade," he literally does just that. As he states in the opening number, he's headed to New York "with a redhead by my side" to start anew. While it is easy to guess that the woman in question is Alison Moorer (who contributes a load of harmonies here), it's also worth noting that Steve sounds rejuvenated and on his best game here. So much so that Steven King recently proclaimed this his favorite album of the year.
While I might not be 100% in agreement with Mr. King, this certainly falls in my top ten. Far more consistent than the firebrand (and filler heavy) The Revolution Starts Now, Earle still is riled up as always. The snarl in "Red is The Color" ("Make way for his majesty the prodigal king/Still taste the poison when you're kissing the ring") is a great take on the chimp in chief and his attitude towards the general populous. Even better is the Pete Seeger tribute, "Steve's Hammer," which has a perfect sing-along chorus and lyrics that will be timeless in decades to come.
There is also Steve's contribution to the TV show, "The Wire." Covering Tom Waits' "Way Down in The Hole" for the season 5 theme (and also highlighting Earle's reoccurring role on the series), it's a gruff reminder that when he's down and dirty, no-one can touch him. There's also moments of wonder/tenderness to be found, be it the story of the celebrated red-tailed hawk Pale Male ("Down Here Below") or the love song to his wife ("Day's Aren't Long Enough"), this is his most rounded album since El Corazón, and given time I may find myself regarding it as essential as I do that CD and my well beaten copy of Copperhead Road. On a par with great late-game albums this year from Bruce Springsteen (Magic) and John Fogerty (Revival), with "Washington Square Serenade," it's high time Steve Earle started seeing the appreciation due him.