Steve Earle
The Revolution Starts
Now
Artemis
If Steve Earle could sing like Toby Keith, he'd be knocking 'em dead at the Kerry inaugural next January. Hell, if Earle could muster even a sliver of Keith's well-groomed stolidity, he might be able to save a song like the klutzy, would-be-anthemic title track of his 12th studio album, an otherwise canny survey of life during wartime. Though he may be a man of the people, Earle's never been the man for them--mainstream country fans would've eventually tuned out his pack-a-day rasp even if he hadn't deserted them first, almost 20 years back.
Yet Earle's demagogic weakness is his artistic strength: His characters feel like individuals, not archetypes. Two years back, on "John Walker's Blues," he burrowed so deeply into the psyche of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, the 21st century's most notorious U.S. turncoat, that conservatives willfully mistook his diagnosis of a pathology for undiluted sympathy. Now, adjusting for a time when Keith himself questions the wisdom of our Iraqi escapade and Howard Stern breeds a nation of First Amendment activists, Earle's characters seem less alienating. On "Home to Houston"--a giddy, easy-shuffling rocker à la Buck Owens--a soldier rolls out of Basra promising never to drive a truck again if God'll get his ass back to Texas alive.
As a writer whose gift is voicing others' perspectives, Earle often becomes more convincing when he emulates other singers. He channels Patti Smith in slam-poet mode on the spoken-word "Warrior" and Springsteen as Tom Joad for "Rich Man's War." And on "F the CC," goddamn if he doesn't sound like Tom Petty, circa 1987's cranky "Jammin' Me," railing against acid rain and Joe Piscopo. True, Earle's "Fuck the FCC / Fuck the FBI / Fuck the CIA" chorus is more obvious than shocking--the friction between consonants on the calypso lust letter "Condi, Condi" is far filthier. But his snarled "livin' in the motherfuckin' USA" rings with such proud defiance, you'll wonder what dipshit left the cuss words out of the Pledge of Allegiance in the first place.
Grade: A-
