CMT Blog: Archive

Up until this year, I considered Steve Earle's poetic "Ft. Worth Blues" as the most fitting tribute possible to his friend and mentor, Townes Van Zandt. The slow-paced song captures the highlights of Van Zandt's life story but also conveys some people's inability to just settle down. However, Earle took it upon himself to release a whole album of Van Zandt compositions earlier this year and called it Townes. He populated most of his early set at Nashville's Belcourt Theatre last night (Aug. 24) with those songs (including "To Live's to Fly" and "Pancho and Lefty" -- two of my personal favorites) but eventually covered material from throughout his career. It dawned on me just how much his music has charted my course without my fully realizing it.

During my early years in Nashville, starting in the mid-90s, Earle was in the middle of a career resurgence, with I Feel Alright, El Corazon and Transcendental Blues. In retrospect, my fondness for those cool, creative records pointed me toward like-minded songwriters like Lucinda Williams, Guy Clark and, of course, Townes Van Zandt. I was fresh out of college but still receiving my musical education. Plus, it wasn't a rarity to see Earle play in Nashville back in those days and I'd always go. I hardly listen to those albums anymore, but it's funny how the music stays with you.

Now he's living in New York City with his lovely wife, Allison Moorer. (He's the first to say that he over-married.) So it's a real treat to hear him again, especially on the older stuff that I still love -- "Someday," "My Old Friend the Blues," "Galway Girl," etc. He closed his set with "Copperhead Road," noting that he'd first played it live on the Belcourt stage. Thus, a welcome return to Guitar Town.

Photo by Jim Herrington