What I appreciate about Steve Earle is that he writes about a side of humanity that I don’t live. He writes about irresponsibility, about separation by choice, about the rambles of a man who searches but never seems to find. Steve Earle’s tribulations are well known and rather unimportant to mention . With his many great albums behind him, it is important to remember Guitar Town, a terrific piece filled with a variety of styles and the kernal of all the things Earle still seems to represent.
Steve Earle seems to be always questioning why. and with Guitar Town, the questioning has never been more succinctly stated or as catchily written. Inspired by Earle’s attendence at a Bruce Springsteen concert, this singer/songwriter masterpiece lovingly exploits the conflict between the hero’s desire to stay in a small town and the need to leave. Set in 1980’s Reagan-era America and featuring Duane Eddy-style reverberated guitar lines blazing through dangerously infectious melodies, Guitar Town’s dusty, blue-collar vignettes relentlessly engage and tug at the heart strings, and Earle’s stark character development revives desperate (“Someday”) and exhuberantly hopeful (“Guitar Town”) emotions from the listener’s childhood. This ‘Dylanesque-country’ sound inadvertantly awakened a young, rock-loving, college-educated country audience yearning for the disappearing rock sounds of John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen. Earle set the mark on the top rung for this type of new country, and with the public expecting only the best, Nashville delivered its finest and most daring projects of the post-Hank Williams era. Easily the most groundbreaking Nashville recording since Waylon Jennings’ “Honky Tonk Heroes” sessions, Guitar Town was named one of Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Recordings of the 80’s and was praised in the rock press (Robert Cristgau’s “The Village Voice” and Dave Marsh’s “Rock and Roll Confidential”) long before receiving favorable country reviews. Guitar Town continues to exert a massive influence on songwriters 16 years after its release and is widely regarded as a cornerstone of the 1980’s “New Traditionalist” movement in Nashville. Steve Earle may never understand the full impact this recording will continue to have on future generations of songwriters. As his music continues to move towards exclusively political themes, it becomes clear he will not visit Americana territory again, but since he virtually defined the genre with this monolithic MCA debut, he can leave well enough (or, in this case, near perfect) alone.
The Fat Angel Sings 