Earle borrows from Hank epitaph for new CD
Steve Earle, "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" (New West)
Veteran singer-songwriter Steve Earle invokes Hank Williams in his new album's title, "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive," which also serves as the name of his first novel, to be published in May. As Earle well knows, a song with the same title served as Williams' epitaph: Hank's "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" was a radio hit at the time of his death at age 29.
But rather than sing about succumbing at an early age, Earle uses this collection of original songs to celebrate survival and struggle.
Working with producer T Bone Burnett, who mixes traditional folk music with bass-heavy rhythms, Earle deals with dark fates, from doomed politicians to dangerous backstreet encounters to an oil spill that threatens the livelihood of a shrimping family that has worked the same waters for generations.
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He counters those songs with tales about how perseverance can pay off, whether it's New Orleans rising from disaster in the fiercely stated "This City" (first heard on the HBO series "Treme," in which Earle has a recurring role) or finding lasting love late in life in the tender ballad "Every Part of Me."
Earle's message, it seems, is that even with life's temptations and tragedies, redemption and meaning can be found - especially in love, in family and in community.
Check this track out: The autobiographical "Waitin' on the Sky," set to a Tex-Mex arrangement reminiscent of the Sir Douglas Quintet, starts with Earle growing up under the specter of the Vietnam War and ends with him declaring that, at age 56, he's happier than he's ever been.
Michael McCall for The Associated Press
Harris sings own songs on 'Hard Bargain'
Emmylou Harris, "Hard Bargain" (Nonesuch)
For an album about life's journey, Emmylou Harris wrote most of the songs herself. Long celebrated as an interpreter with impeccable taste in material, Harris composed 11 of the 13 tunes on "Hard Bargain," and they're up to her high standards.
There's a theme throughout: Time is flying by, the sun is going down, and Harris has spent her life "working on the blues." Nearly 40 years after the death of country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons, she offers a fresh assessment of their close relationship on "The Road." Harris sings with equal eloquence on "Darlin' Kate" about another friend and singer who died last year, Kate McGarrigle.
Harris finds dignity in late-life solitude on "Nobody" and the gorgeous "Lonely Girl." On "My Name Is Emmett Till," she contemplates the years stolen from the young man whose killing became a symbol of the civil rights movement.
Harris still performs in cowboy boots, but she branched out beyond country music some time ago, and there's little twang here. The album was recorded with producer-guitarist Jay Joyce and multi-instrumentalist Giles Reaves, and the trio creates the sort of gauzy, soft-focus sound Harris first explored on "Wrecking Ball" in 1995. Her silvery soprano is in fine form, and, as always, her songs benefit from contributions by the world's greatest harmony singer: Harris.
Check this track out: "My Name Is Emmett Till" revisits the horror of the infamous 1955 murder with moving grace, the wordless chorus echoing spirituals sung at civil rights rallies.
Steven Wine, The Associated Press
