'These are scary times': A busy Steve Earle ready to make a new record for troubled times
Steve Earle figures he is three songs away from finishing his long-gestating musical based on the 1983 Robert Duvall film Tender Mercies.
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This is good news, both for him and his fans. It's something to look forward to, for sure. But it has also been time-consuming. He admits it has occupied most of his songwriting talents in the past five years. But he is itching to get back to making albums and, let's face it, the world could use a new Steve Earle album right about now. As a politically progressive voice in the often conservative world of country music, Earle's insights into the forces that are deeply dividing his country would be welcome.
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He has made sharply political music before. His 2002 post-9/11 record, Jerusalem, was an overtly political album with songs that delved into the War on Terror and American identity. His 2004 album, The Revolution Starts Now, was a response to the Bush administration and the Iraq War. In 2013, he released The Low Highway, which told stories of poverty and societal neglect. His 1986 debut, Guitar Town, had songs that dealt with the failed promise of Ronald Reagan's America. He describes his breakthrough, 1988's Copperhead Road, as a 'pretty (expletive) political record.'
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'Side 1 is, anyway,' says Earle, in a Zoom interview with Postmedia in advance of his weekend folk festival appearance. 'Side 2 is chick songs because that's why I got a guitar in the first place.'
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For now, Earle is still working on the Tender Mercies musical, which he calls the 'hardest thing I've ever done.' Whatever shape a new album will take after that has yet to be determined.
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'These are scary times,' he says. 'If I get to make another album … I think I'm going to no matter what. I'll finish these three songs and figure out what kind of record I want to make. I'll be thinking about what kind of music it's going to be first. But it will be hard not to write about this stuff, at least to some degree.'
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Earle, who will be closing the Calgary Folk Music Festival on Saturday night with the band Reckless Kelly, has always balanced political songs, socially conscious storytelling and activism with 'chick songs,' or at least songs about relationships and life. He has always been a prolific songwriter, but most of his recent studio albums have been tributes that found him offering covers of other artists.
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That includes 2019's GUY, which focused on the songs of Guy Clark; 2021's J.T., a tribute to his late son Justin Townes Earle, who died in 2020; and 2022's Jerry Jeff, a tribute to Jerry Jeff Walker, who also died in 2020.
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