 "Steve Earle WAS and IS here to stay!" | 2009-08-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1831P64QJUSQ7 |
If Train A-Comin' was Steve Earle's "comeback album", I Feel Alright was Steve Earle's "I'm-here-to-stay album". Though this album is definetely a country album (even though the Nashville machine won't admit it), Earle nevertheless sprinkles his country-sontgs with folk, Appalaichia, rock, blues, and even a 1960s style of folksy pop-rock, proving that Steve Earle will make country-music his way...
I FEEL ALRIGHT - A kick-down-the-doors/guess-who's-here? country-rocker where Earle admits with sheer glee: "I've been to Hell and now I'm back again".
HARD-CORE TROUBADOUR - This is Earle describing himself, but also paying homage to the country-singers and rockers who've come before him and have blazed a path. He even throws-out an acknowledgement to one of his peers, Bruce Springsteen, as he jokingly tosses out the question, "Hey Rosalita, will you come out tonight?" in reference to Springsteen's song, "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)".
MORE THAN I CAN DO - A country-fied folk-rocker with Earle possibly pining for the love of the wife he was then married to (Lou-Ann). I personally consider this song Steve's own sly admission that just because you're sober doesn't mean relationships will work-out as you want them to.
HURTING ME, HURTING YOU - Steve Earle is acknowledging the fact that - once-again - even though he is sober, he still has problems with his love-life. This is probably the most underrated country-song with the best line a country-song could ever have: "I'm just hurtin' me when I'm hurtin' you."
NOW SHE'S GONE - Though he was married to Lou-Ann at the release of this album, Earle wistfully remembers his other loves. Though many say this song is specifically about Teresa (Steve's fourth wife), I personally think this song could be about any of his ex-wives.
POOR BOY - This is a clever re-telling of Earle's life (four years to be exact) when he was lost in a haze of drugs and a flood of alcohol. The "poor boy" could be Earle, the drug dealers he used to know, or both. The somber lyrics, however, are betrayed by a slightly uptempo electric guitar riff. Kind of like a "Born In The U.S.A." for recovering junkies.
VALENTINE'S DAY - Earle's plea for forgiveness from his then-wife for not being the best when it comes to treating his wife with flowers and the works on Valentine's Day. I think most every man who is married or has a girlfriend can relate.
THE UNREPENTANT - This is probably the only country-rocker I know of that obrders on heavy-metal... And Earle pulls it off brilliantly. This is a re-teling of a drug-deal with the most down-n-dirty of all the drug dealers he has ever known.
CCKMP - An abbreviation for "Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain", Earle uses this song to say that he might be clean, but the temptation is still out there.
BILLY AND BONNIE - Another country-fied folk-rocker (with Earle playing the mandolin, giving in an Appalachian feel), Earle tells the story of a girl named Bonnie who takes a boy named Billy for a ride - literally and figuratively.
SOUTH NASHVILLE BLUES - An attempt by Earle to put a light-hearted spin on his former problems with drugs. In any other artist's hands, this would've not be funny. But Earle, who is a songwriter's songwriter, pulls it off and then some.
YOU'RE STILL STANDING THERE - A duet with Lucinda Williams, this song finds Earle acknowledging that he has "spent most of my life followin' the things I cannot see". Even so, Earle acknowledges the love of a good woman who waits for him at the end of his travels, however futile they may be.
All-in-all, this is a bonified country album that could've only been pulled-off by Steve Earle. Take THAT, Rascal Flatts!
|
| |
| "An American Master" | 2007-10-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: AHQLJS2BVRH5E |
| This is a great album by a great artist. This album is the perfect place to start your schooling by one of the masters. Steve Earle for Mayor of Baltimore! |
| |
| "This album isn't alright...it's awesome" | 2007-10-05 |
| - Reviewed By shamino7 |
The theme of this album is simple: Steve Earle got himself healthy again and was ready to show that he could confront his past and rock out again with the best of 'em. After being one of popular music's biggest outlaws in the late '80s, Steve effectively disappeared in the early '90s as his years and years of drug use took over his life. He called it his "vacation in the ghetto." When he finally agreed to go to rehab, Steve was afraid to jump back into his old image too quickly. For him, loud guitars meant money, and money meant drugs, and he wasn't ready for that yet. Thus he recorded the phenomenal all-acoustic masterpiece Train a Comin' in 1995, his way of easing himself back into the recording process. The following year, well, Steve began to feel alright again and he plugged the guitars back in and recorded one of the great albums of the modern era (which could be said about any of his albums, in truth).
Allow me to be blunt here. Turn this album up as high as you can tolerate it, and be ready to peel the paint off the walls, because from its opening to its closing, this album rips...Nashville renegade way. The sound of Steve's guitar in "Feel Alright"'s first chords is pristine and jumps right out at you. Fans of HBO's The Wire will recognize this song from the closing montage from season 2 (and of course Earle plays a character on the show). The guitars jangle, the drums pound, and Steve's harmonica blows like a hurricane as he sings about all the people who doubted him, wanted to take advantage of him, and never liked him to begin with. "Be careful what you wish for friend, 'cause I've been to hell and now I'm back again. I feel alright," Steve sings, and we know that all is right in Steve's world again.
"Hard-Core Troubadour" comes next, and is a fast-paced redneck romp that grabs you right from the first drum smash and doesn't let up until it's over. The guitars snarl as Steve weaves his words around the tale of "the last of the hard-core troubadours," a phrase that has now become his nickname. "More Than I Can Do" blasts off with Steve's harmonica playing as he sings a rockin' love song about not being able to give up the one he loves. This one moves so fast that you may not even realize the beauty of the chords, but it's there; the chord structure is excellent. "Hurtin' Me, Hurtin' You" is a slower, arpeggiated ballad about hurting his loved one(s). As I said above, that's part of the theme of this album, dealing with his past and the way he was pre-rehab. Steve croons the lyrics as the song goes on, showing his rock side a bit near the end before declaring that he "never meant to be cruel or untrue...I'm just hurtin' me when I'm hurtin' you."
"Now She's Gone" is another harmonica-based song that, effectively, acts as an alt-rock "sequel" to the subject of The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home." As always, Steve's lyrics are perfect, one of the masterful lyricists of our time: "She always kept on movin' and she never wasted time, and they said she left quite a string of broken hearts behind. Woke up alone and now she's gone." The next song, "Poor Boy," is a very rockabilly tune about being born into the wrong stock and having to try to make his way through life and love as he tries to figure out what a poor boy's gonna do. The beginning and end are regular romps, but it rocks during the middle solo section. It's followed by the album's first soft song, the lovely "Valentine's Day," one of the most beautiful songs Steve ever wrote. Written on February 13th (my birthday!), this song describes the true situation of Steve simply forgetting about Valentine's Day and having nothing to give but his love (and this song). This is, simply, one of the greatest love songs ever written, and every single thing about it shines, from Steve's cracked vocals to the chord structure to the string arrangement to the background vocals from the Fairfield Four. Steve sings, "I know that I swore that I wouldn't forget. I wrote it all down; I lost it, I guess. There's so much I want to say, but all the words just slip away. The way you love me every day is Valentine's Day." Do yourself a favor: forget about your next Valentine's Day gift and sing this song to the person you love instead.
The song ends and the loud cracks of "The Unrepentant" begin. This song is the heaviest on the album, and is basically Steve's way of affirming what he used to be like. He howls about being unafraid of consequences, of not caring what anybody said to him, of staring down the devil himself...and then it drones out into the Eastern-influenced CCKMP, a song that Steve wrote before ever going into rehab but never recorded because his drug use took over his life. As he sings, "Cocaine cannot kill my pain," and "Heroin is the only thing, the only gift that darkness brings," he instills in the listener the darkness that he went through in his own drug use. This is the first of two songs on the album to blatantly deal with his former drug use, and as Steve says, he likes to play them together when he can, just as a reminder to himself what he used to be like. "Billy and Bonnie" is a light-hearted story-driven song about two thieves and their travails together. The lyrics are the highlight of this one.
Next comes the other drug song, "South Nashville Blues." Whereas "CCKMP" was dark, this one is light and exactly what you'd expect it to sound like from the title. "CCKMP" dealt with the after effect of the drugs; "South Nashville Blues" deals with the obtaining of them: "I took my pistol and a hundred dollar bill...I had everything I needed to get me killed." And, too soon, the album ends with the lovely Lucinda Williams duet, "You're Still Standing There." They sing two sides of a tale of a man not knowing where he's headed in life except back to the woman he loves, even as the world keeps turning round and round and life goes on outside of him. A great way to end the album.
Bottom line? If you want to experience a natural high, get in your car, get on an open road, pop in this album, and turn the volume up. Steve was ready to confront his demons and he felt alright doing it. Be ready to listen, and be thankful that you did.
|
| |
 "Im Alive, I Feel Alright" | 2007-01-04 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1RRHYYI2G31TA |
With a clear head and a surviving exhaltation, I Feel Alright serves notice that Steve Earle has re-surfaced from the depths of his drug impaired personal situation with a backlog of songs that literally pour out from the speakers. Continuing to call on his own experiences in an virtually auto-biographical manner, confessions such as "Hard Core Troubardors" rock and wink as he challenges his protaganists to think twice about getting involved with him in the first place.
Filled with instantly repeatable choruses and jublilant melody, "More Than I Can Do" and "You're Still Standing There" are cause for constant replay. This CD sets the standard for any future offering from Earle or any other serious singer songwriter for that matter. Included are soon to be standards of Earle's live performances, "Valentine's Day", "South Nashville Blues", and the "Unrepentant".
Taken singularly, a Steve Earle album can hold its own with most any other writer, but taken as a body of work, it becomes a standard that challenges all comers. Guitar Town was only a beginning, and a compromise to Nashville production standards of the time, but once the listener begins the journey started with "Exit O", "The Hard Way", and then "I Feel Alright" an increasingly justified appreciation for a certain wreckless genius unfolds. |
| |
| "I feel sorry for anyone who doens't know Steve Earle" | 2006-12-22 |
| - Reviewed By billybrown412 |
Here it is. I've been going on for years and years about how great this guy is and how nearly every album (up until "Jerusalum" anyway) he does is better than the one before. This was a big turning point in his style and overall songwriting. After the stint in prison, he released the equally excellent, all-acoustic "Train a Comin'" and followed up with the more rockin' "I feel Alright". This was a more ragged, harder rocking Steve Earle who actually lived everything that he was singing about and wasn't afraid to wear his feelings on his grungy sleeve. The authenticity could never be faked, only bought through years of hard living and near death experiences.
Coming in at a close third ("Transcendental Blues" and "El Corazon" come in first and second) This is definitely a must-own for any fan of real music. Simple as that. |
| |
| "Hard-Core Troubadour!" | 2006-12-13 |
| - Reviewed By gemms10 |
| Not sure what the CD is like yet...I just ordered it for one song that was on the soundtrack to "Talladega Nights - The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" - Hard-Core Troubadour. What a great song. If you have seen the movie, you know the song! If the rest of the CD is anything like Hard-Core, it will be great. |
| |
Expedited Available
