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Steve Earle - 1988 - Copperhead Road (2016 HDtracks) [[email protected]]
Artist: Steve Earle
Title: Copperhead Road (2016 HDtracks)
Format: WEB, 10 x files FLAC, Album, Reissue, Remastered, 24bit 96kHz (HDtracks)
Producer: Steve Earle, Tony Brown
Release Date: October 17, 1988 (2016 HDtracks)
Recorded: December 1987 − July 1988 at Ardent Studios, Memphis, TN and Livingston Studios, London, England
Label: Geffen Records (i)
Genre: Rock, Country Rock, Folk Rock, Hard Rock
Duration: 43:31
Steve Earle:
Wikipedia:
Stephen Fain Earle (born January 17, 1955) is an American rock, country and folk singer-songwriter, record producer, author and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982.
His breakthrough album was the 1986 album Guitar Town. Since then Earle has released 15 other studio albums and received three Grammy awards. His songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Shawn Colvin, Ian Stuart Donaldson and Emmylou Harris. He has appeared in film and television, and has written a novel, a play, and a book of short stories.
Copperhead Road:
Wikipedia:
Copperhead Road is the third studio album by Steve Earle, released in 1988. The album is often referred to as Earle's first "rock record"; Earle himself calls it the world's first blend of heavy metal and bluegrass, and the January 26, 1989 review of the album by Rolling Stone suggested that the style be called "power twang".
The songs on side one of the album reflect Earle's politics: the title track attacks the War on Drugs, and the song "Snake Oil" compares then president Ronald Reagan to a traveling con man and draws attention to his "legacy of creative deceit". The title track and "Johnny Come Lately" (performed with The Pogues) both describe the experiences of returning veterans. The latter compares the experience of US servicemen fighting in World War II with those in the Vietnam War, and contrasts the differing receptions they received on returning home. "Back to the Wall" is about poverty, describing the life of the homeless in the US.
Unlike some issues-oriented musicians, however, Earle does not limit himself to political material. The second side of the album consists of more personal, slower tempo works: love songs ("Even When I'm Blue" for example) and a holiday offering ("Nothing but a Child", performed with Maria McKee).
The title song "Copperhead Road" tells of a Vietnam War veteran, scion of a rural moonshine bootlegging clan, who returns home to Johnson County, Tennessee but decides instead to enter the marijuana business which is shown by the line, "I'll take the seed from Colombia and Mexico". Copperhead Road was an actual road near Mountain City, Tennessee although it has since been renamed as Copperhead Hollow Rd. due to theft of road signs bearing the song's name. The song also inspired a popular line dance timed to the beat of the song and has been used as the theme music for the Discovery Channel reality series Moonshiners.
AllMusic Review by Mark Deming:
Steve Earle and Nashville had had just about enough of one another once it came time for him to cut his third album in 1988. Earle's first two albums, Guitar Town and Exit 0, had sold well and earned enthusiastic reviews, but his stubborn refusal to make nice, his desire to make more rock-influenced albums, and the faint but clear Leftism in his populist lyrical stance made him no friends at MCA's Nashville offices, and his growing dependence on heroin didn't help matters one bit. Earle was moved to MCA's Los Angeles-based Uni imprint, and he headed to Memphis to cut his third album, Copperhead Road. The result improbably became one of Earle's strongest albums; between its big drum sound, arena-sized guitars, and a swagger that owed more to the Rolling Stones and Guns N' Roses than country's New Traditionalists, Copperhead Road was the unabashed rock & roll album Earle had long threatened to make, but his attitude and personality were strong enough to handle the oversized production, and the songs showed that for all the aural firepower, this was still the same down-home troublemaker from Earle's first two albums. The moonshiner's tale of the title cut, the gunfighter's saga of "The Devil's Right Hand," and the story of two generations of soldiers in "Johnny Come Lately" (with the Pogues sitting in as Earle's backing band) were all tough but compelling narratives rooted in country tradition, and their rock moves updated them without robbing them of their power. And if the songs about love that dominate the album's second half don't have the same immediate impact, "Even When I'm Blue," "You Belong to Me," and "Once You Love" are honest and absorbing reflections of the heart of this dysfunctional romantic. Copperhead Road's production, which occasionally borders on hair metal territory, dates it, but the fire of Earle's performances and the strength of the songs more than compensates, and this album still connects 20 years on: if he had been able to hold himself together and make a few more records this strong, it's hard to imagine how big a star he could have become.
Tracklist:
01. Copperhead Road - 4:30
02. Snake Oil - 3:31
03. Back To The Wall - 5:29
04. The Devil’s Right Hand - 3:02
05. Johnny Come Lately - 4:07
06. Even When I’m Blue - 4:14
07. You Belong To Me - 4:24
08. Waiting On You - 5:10
09. Once You Love - 4:39
10. Nothing But A Child - 4:25
Personnel:
Steve Earle – vocals, guitars, harmonica, 6-string bass, mandolin
Donny Roberts – guitars, 6-string bass
Bill Lloyd – acoustic guitar
Michael McAdam – 12-string electric guitar
Bucky Baxter – pedal steel, lap steel, Dobro
Ken Moore – synthesizer and organ
John Barlow Jarvis – piano
Kelley Looney – bass
Kurt Custer – drums
Neil MacColl – mandolin on "Johnny Come Lately"
John Cowan, Maria McKee, Radney Foster – background vocals
Chris Birkett – drum programming on "You Belong to Me"
Gary Tallent – arrangement on "The Devil's Right Hand"
The Pogues played on "Johnny Come Lately"
Telluride played on "Nothing But a Child"
The Pogues:
Terry Woods – cittern
Phil Chevron – guitar, vocals
Jem Finer – banjo
James Fearnley – accordion
Spider Stacy – tin whistle, vocals
Shane MacGowan – banjo, bodhran
Darryl Hunt – bass
Andrew Ranken – drums
Telluride:
Sam Bush – mandolin
Jerry Douglas – dobro
Mark O'Connor – violin
Edgar Meyer – bass violin
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