Tuesday, May 27, 2008

581. Steve Earle - Guitar Town (1986)
















Track Listing

1. Guitar Town
2. Goodbye's All We've Got Left
3. Hillbilly Highway
4. Good Ol' Boy (Gettin' Tough)
5. My Old Friend The Blues
6. Someday
7. Think It Over
8. Fearless Heart
9. Little Rock 'N' Roller
10. Down The Road

Review

So Steve Earle is another of those granddaddy's of alt country, but unfortunately he is no Nanci Griffith, Earle is deriving his influences as much from Bruce Springsteen as from Country music, but that doesn't necessarily make it great.

Don't get me wrong, it is a pretty god album, but it just doesn't add much to country music, the lyrics aren't particularly interesting kind of mimicking the Springsteen thing about driving and blue collared people. Then it sometimes tries to be a bit lighter in a very countrified way which doesn't particularly work that well, such as in Hillbilly Highway...

In the end a good album but nothing interesting enough to bring it above a middling level, some of the tracks are a bit too sappy for their own good, some are a bit too rednecky and some are too Springsteen, but not as good.

Track Highlights


1. Down The Road
2. Guitar Town
3. Fearless Heart
4. My Old Friend The Blues


Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In 2006, it ranked 27th on CMT's 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music.

Guitar Town:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This album sounded a lot more radical when it came out. I remember hearing it and some other "New" country about then and being suprised.

On the other hand, I think Steve Earle's more recent stuff is much more interesting than this - particularly since he is much more political now.