We Ain't Ever Satisfied - Steve Earle > Reviews > Trouble comes to Nashville

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

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Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Many musicians turn into hard living party animals once they have got used to the fame and adulation that success has brought them. Steve Earle, however, lived his life with the controls set on maximum even in the days when he was a total unknown. His fame came despite his wild ways and unwillingness to compromise and to the other way around. In some ways he has lost out because of his need to stick to his guns, the level of fame he sought came to him later than most and he missed some of the opportunities that have been offered to the likes of Ryan Adams who seems to be a worthy pretender to Earle's throne both musically and in his lifestyle. That said because of his ways he has made the music that he wanted to make and not had to water down his vision in the way that his contemporaries, Lyle Lovett and Nanci Griffiths felt obliged to do. We Aint Ever Satisfied is the proof, albeit the short snapshot version, that Earle was right to play the game his way, for in not bowing down to the marketing men, the suits and the record company bosses he has produced some musical gems and 12 of them compromise this 1992 album.

Earle is a Texan who cut his musical teeth in Nashville and was part of a group of outsiders to the ultra conservative country set up of the time. Earle worked with such luminaries as Guy Clarke and Townes Van Zant both of whom achieved a reasonable amount of success but Earle, who always said that he would make his first album at 21 had to wait another 10 years for his thing to kick off. By then he was as much infamous for his difficult attitude as he was famous for his raw emotive live shows. By the time Guitar Town, the debut album, saw the light of day the whole scene was in two camps. You either loved him or hated him, there were not many in-between. Guitar Town was scene as a revolution within the safe and ordered world of country music at that time, part country, part folk and part rock and it didn't hurt that Bruce Springsteen, a man he was often compared to, was seen buying his album. The first five tracks on the album are from the debut.

The opening track, Guitar Town, like most of his work, contains a lot about the man himself, his road lifestyle, his drive to succeed and it opens in good old country style before picking up the beat and rocking off in its own direction. If not a reinvention of country music it certainly revisits the older styles and lyrical content. Richard Bennetts heavy "twang" to his guitar gives it what Steve himself would have called a "hillbilly sound" as distinct from the formulated style coming out of Nashville at the time when most artists used the same roster of backing musicians. This memorable riff provides a great opening salvo for this album, just as it did for the debut album it first appeared on. This is still very much in the Nashville vein but hints at the rebellion that was to follow as Earle pushed the boundaries of his chosen field until he emerged as a fully fledged rocker. Someday follows providing a change of direction, starting with its sparse opening and its harsh story of dead-end poor communities and the dreams of those caught within them.

There ain't a lot that you can do in this town
You drive down to the lake and then you turn back around
You go to school and you learn to read and write
So you can walk into the county bank and sign away your life

This is subject matter out of the Bruce Springsteen book of lyric writing and musically akin to John Cougar Mellencamp but with his Texas drawl spitting out the words with regret and venom he manages to retain his own identity. These two songs also nicely encompass the vision in Earle's head. At one extreme its heading off down the highway with your friends raising hell and not looking back, at the other its being caught in the poverty trap of American government policy, this is the sound track to Earnest Hemmingway and Jack Kerouac.

Also from this album, My Old Friend The Blues remains one of Earle's highest regarded songs. A solo ballad of regret and having one constant and faithfully ally in his life, the blues, it highlights his haunting voice, full of emotion and pain. Short and sweet, poignant and sorrowful it sits at odds with the country rock he was known for at this time. I Aint Ever Satisfied is one of two songs from his second Album, Exit O, a full on acoustic guitar driven laid back rocker with a lot in common with the more pushy moments from Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Its here that we can see the country influences beginning to give way to a more rock stance. Copperhead Road, the title track of his third album follows and here the transformation is complete and all his desires seem to have come to fruition, squealing bagpipes open the track, mandolins set the pace and the song builds as the guitars join in to reach a crescendo when the whole band finally breaks the tension and blasts the song wide open. The themes by now are darker, his fascination with drugs, veteran soldiers, moonshiners and all things illegal all weave together in this song, all elements that featured highly in his own life. By now political comment and hard hitting epic songs mixed with his older styles.

Devils Right Hand and Johnny Come Lately follow, both from the same album. The former is an old live favourite penned well before his first album saw the light of day and as such is basically one of his country numbers but here given a rock gloss, the steel pedal of his old life trading the limelight with the lead guitar of his new. Johnny Come Lately is a folk number, reportedly written specifically so as he could work with the Pogues with whom he had become good drinking buddies and toured with. The song features banjo, fiddle, whistle and accordion and reminds us of the links and similarities between the old world celtic sounds and the new world bluegrass tunes. Earle stands here with one foot in the waters of Galway bay and the other in the Appalachian Mountains and the result is a memorable and upbeat track.

Two tracks from The Hard Way round off proceedings. The Other Kind is an almost apologetic response to his families and friends concerns to his hard living of the time. Mandolins flicker behind the guitars and an understated power acts as a platform for Earle to pour out his heart.

I woke up this morning and I took a look around at all that I got
These days I've been lookin' in the mirror and wondering if that's me lookin' back or not
I'm still the apple of my mama's eye
I'm my daddy's worst fears realized
Here of late all this real estate don't seem all that real to me sometimes
I'm back out on that road again
Turn this beast into the wind
There are those that break and bend
I'm the other kind, I'm the other kind

Finally, Billy Austin is a dark tale of a man on Death Row, another heart felt ballad, part social outcry and part autobiographical. Earle is a story teller, some true, some analogy and some total fantasy but always delivered with a measured and calculated use of the words. This is really a story set to a guitar, no real verse and chorus structure, to beat just the rhythm of the words and the captivating tale being told.

This album covers Earle's tempestuous and glorious work over his first four albums, there are many more to check out since this album was put together but as an introduction to the man and his work, this is as good a place as any to start. Earle is all things to all men, he is country for those who don't like country, he is rock to those who don't like rock, all the time he is crossing the boundaries and mixing up the genres. Welcome to the Hardcore Troubadour, welcome to the man who burnt down Nashville and finally rose from its ashes.