Usually we pick four CDs and put them into the carousel on random. It is very old school. This weekend she suggested we alternate putting on full albums that each of us considered "5 star albums". Having this blog saved me a lot of time picking my half. Here's what we came up with through the evening (coded L and S for your convenience, since we don't necessarily agree on each other's vision of what constitutes a five star album):
1. OK Computer - Radiohead (S)
2. Symphony No. 5 - Beethoven (L)
3. Graceland - Paul Simon (S)
4. Vol IV - Black Sabbath (L)
5. Synchronicity - The Police (S)
6. Darkness On The Edge Of Town - Bruce Springsteen (L)
7. The Forgotten Arm - Aimee Mann (S)
8. From The Inside - Alice Cooper (L)
9. August And Everything After - Counting Crows (S)
10. Some Enchanted Evening - Blue Oyster Cult (L)
The ones with links I've previously reviewed. To hear more about the other ones you'll just have to keep reading my blog (in the industry, we call that a 'teaser', I'm told). Now, enough of spoilers and teasers; on to today's review!
Disc 332 is...The Mountain
Artist: Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band
Year of Release: 1998
What’s Up With The Cover?: More cover art from a guy named Tony Fitzpatrick, who Earle has been using for his covers since around this time. I really don't take to this guy's art, but Steve Earle obviously does, because here it is again. Sheila pointed out that there are scantily clad ladies, but even that doesn't redeem this stuff, which just isn't my cup of tea.
How I Came To Know It: I have been a Steve Earle fan for as long as he's been making records, but this one came to me comparatively late. I'd like to come up with an elaborate lie as to why, but the truth is I somehow just missed it on release. I only discovered it about five or six years ago.
How It Stacks Up: There is no such thing as a bad Steve Earle album, but that perforce must mean that competition is stiff. This one is one of his lesser albums, so I'll put it in at about 12th or 13th out of his 15 studio albums.
Rating: 3 stars.
As I noted above, I came to this album late, and when I'm just casually in the mood for some Steve Earle (which is often) I don't often pick this one. Consequently, it has had comparatively fewer listens, and it was nice to spend a few days with it, during which I got in three complete listens (subject to the sidebar rules, of course).
This record is a collaborative effort between Earle and the Del McCoury band, who I had never heard of prior to this record, but are a big thing in bluegrass circles. They've been around since the late sixties, and are currently on their second iteration with the addition of Del's sons to the fold. Steve Earle is a lover of all American roots music, and was keen to do an album of more traditional bluegrass music, and so this project came about.
I'm not a huge bluegrass fan, but I admire the music overall, and it features some of the finest banjo and American fiddle playing you'll hear. "The Mountain" does not disappoint on either instrument, as the Del McCoury band can really lay down a lick worth hearing in any holler.
On Earle's last trip through my neck of the woods (the songs make you think in phrases like this), he played a couple songs off of the record that I hadn't heard live before, and I enjoyed them both. When I gave this the "official" listen this week, these two songs naturally stood out for me, hearing them again as I was with fresh ears.
The first is "Dixieland", the tale of an Irish immigrant who comes to the United States and ends up enlisting in the Union Army under General Joshua Chamberlain and fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. As ever, Earle is the master of this kind of tale, as he tells one of the most famous stories in American history through the unique viewpoint of a newcomer to the country. Nothing sums this perspective up so well as the final verse:
"I am Kilran of the 20th Maine and I damn all gentlemen
Who's only worth is their father's name and the sweat of a workin' man
Well we come from the farms and the city streets and a hundred foreign lands
And we spilled our blood in the battle's heat. Now we're all Americans."
For a sense of the recruitment that went on of immigrants to the US during the Civil War, give a watch to Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" as the story forms a big part of the backdrop of that excellent film. (The book is good too, if you have the time, although it is less about Civil War recruitment and more about the nefarious activities of the gangs).
The other song that stands out is the title track, "The Mountain," another folk song about a mountain man (perhaps in Kentucky, although it is never stated) who has watched developers come to his home and strip-mine coal and log all the lumber. Now the company is gone along with all the resources, and there is nothing left for him. Despite, this he will not move away from his home. It is a song sung with deep and evocative emotion, sad without asking any pity, and defiant without ever seeming martial.
While the album has a number of high points, it also has some elements that keep it from achieving its full potential.
Firstly, it does the whole 'studio out-take' thing that I've declared a personal war on in other reviews. In Earle's case I don't think he is trying to be emotionally detached or post-modern as is often the case. I believe he is trying to catch the rustic quality of the music. I still don't care for it, and personally believe if those early artists could remove such 'rustic' stuff from their recordings they would have.
Among the silliness, we get Earle opening the record with a half-sung bit of the Mickey Mouse club song, followed by exhorting someone to put on their hat to 'be in the club'. The song that follows, "Texas Eagle" is a good one, but the intro takes me right out of the moment.
In other places, the album feels a bit derivative of Bob Dylan. Obviously, Earle is heavily influenced by Dylan throughout his career, but songs like "Leroy's Dustbowl Blues" had me checking the liner notes to see who wrote them. That he is appealing to an early Dylan sound is fine, but I wanted a great artist like Earle to do a little more with it when he does. When he sings "Your Forever Blue" he sounds like he's affecting a nasally accent. I'm not sure if it is a Dylan thing, but I didn't like it, and wish he'd just belt it out with his naturally strong southern twang.
These are minor quibbles, but they were sufficient for me to keep this from reaching 4 stars. I admire that Earle did this project, which is a fitting tribute to a style of music that he clearly loves. He is one of my favourite artists of all time, and he seems incapable of doing a bad job, so despite it not being his best record, it is still worth an occasional listen.
Best tracks: Carrie Brown, Harlan Man, The Mountain, Dixieland, Pilgrim
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