Guitar Town [Bonus Track] [Remaster]

Performer: Steve Earle
Artist: John Jarvis
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Steve Earle & The Dukes include: Steve Earle (vocals); Richard Bennett (guitar, bass); Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar); Emory Gordy, Jr. (mandolin, bass); Ken Moore (organ, synthesizer); Harry Stinson (drums, background vocals). Additional personnel includes: Paul Franklin (pedal steel guitar); John Jarvis (piano, synthesizer); Steve Nathan (synthesizer). Producers: Emory Gordy, Jr., Tony Brown, Tim Devine. Reissue producers: Steve Earle, Tony Brown, Andy McKaie. Engineers: Russ Martin, Chuck Ainlay, Steve Tillisch. Includes liner notes by Steve Earle. All tracks have been digitally remastered. This is a Super Audio CD playable only on Super Audio cd players. Steve Earle & The Dukes include: Steve Earle (vocals); Richard Bennett (guitar, bass); Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar); Emory Gordy, Jr. (mandolin, bass); Ken Moore (organ, synthesizer); Harry Stinson (drums, background vocals). Additional personnel includes: Paul Franklin (pedal steel guitar); John Jarvis (piano, synthesizer); Steve Nathan (synthesizer). Producers: Emory Gordy, Jr., Tony Brown, Tim Devine. Reissue producers: Steve Earle, Tony Brown, Andy McKaie. Engineers: Russ Martin, Chuck Ainlay, Steve Tillisch. Includes liner notes by Steve Earle. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Personnel: Steve Earle (vocals, guitar); Harry Stinson (vocals, drums); Richard Bennett (guitar, 6-string bass); Mike McAdam, Bucky Baxter (guitar); Emory Gordy (mandolin); John Jarvis (piano, synthesizer); Ken Moore (organ, keyboards, synthesizer); Steve Nathan (synthesizer). Audio Mixer: Chuck Ainlay. Audio Remasterers: Glenn Meadows; Tony Brown; Steve Earle. Liner Note Author: Steve Earle. Recording information: Emerald Studio (1986); Park West, Chicago, IL (1986); Sound Stage Studio (1986). Photographer: Alan Messer. A much-loved album that is one of the key records in the development of "new country". The image of the immaculate, conservative, singing cowboy was completely ruined by Earle. He was bad, he loved substance abuse and he played loud, dirty, rock 'n' roll-laced country rock. Through all the past excess he has emerged a survivor, and is in reality the Bruce Springsteen of "new country". He sings of ordinary life and pick-up trucks instead of pink Cadillacs. "Someday" highlights the perils of being trapped in a small town, with the last line giving some hope: "someday I'll put her on that interstate and never look back". On Steve Earle's first major American tour following the release of his debut album, Guitar Town, Earle found himself sharing a bill with Dwight Yoakam one night and the Replacements another, and one listen to the album explains why -- while the music was country through and through, Earle showed off enough swagger and attitude to intimidate anyone short of Keith Richards. While Earle's songs bore a certain resemblance to the Texas outlaw ethos (think Waylon Jennings in "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" mode), they displayed a literate anger and street-smart snarl that set him apart from the typical Music Row hack, and no one in Nashville in 1986 was able (or willing) to write anything like the title song, a hilarious and harrowing tale of life on the road ("Well, I gotta keep rockin' while I still can/Got a two-pack habit and motel tan") or the bitterly unsentimental account of small-town life "Someday" ("You go to school, where you learn to read and write/So you can walk into the county bank and sign away your life"), the latter of which may be the best Bruce Springsteen song the Boss didn't write. And even when Earle gets a bit teary-eyed on "My Old Friend the Blues" and "Little Rock 'n' Roller," he showed off a battle-scarred heart that was tougher and harder-edged than most of his competition. Guitar Town is slightly flawed by an overly tidy production from Emory Gordy, Jr., and Tony Brown as well as a band that never hit quite as hard as Earle's voice, and he would make many stronger and more ambitious records in the future, but Guitar Town was his first shot at showing a major audience what he could do, and he hit a bull's-eye -- it's perhaps the strongest and most confident debut album any country act released in the 1980s. [In 2002, MCA reissued the album in Super Audio, with improved packaging and the addition of a bonus track, a live cover of Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper."] ~ Mark Deming

Rolling Stone (11/89) - Ranked #79 in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Albums Of The 80s" survey. Q (4/02, p.131) - 4 out of 5 stars - "...If you like your beer with a shot and your guitars strictly pedal steel, stick this in your '67 Chevy." Mojo (Publisher) (6/00, p.43) - "...The rock edge and attitude that [he] brought to the table marked him out from the country crowd straight away....a landmark debut."

Steve Earle did for country in the 1980s what Waylon Jennings did for it in the '70s--released it from the shackles of commerciality and overproduction by introducing a bad-ass, rock-friendly outlaw aesthetic. Besides his talents as a singer/songwriter, Earle is a producer/entrepreneur who's worked with many other artists (some on his own label) and helped foster a new wave of progressive country. He's also a dedicated political activist who's done much for a variety of progressive causes.

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