Terraplane

We love the gritty guitars and fierce attitude of Steve Earle’s definitive brand of country-rock, but there’s been a dash of blues in his sound (and his soul) from the start. Earle fully embraces his inner bluesman on *Terraplane*, taking an old-school approach on tunes that tap into everything from Big Joe Williams (\"You\'re the Best Lover That I Ever Had\") to a fiddle-flecked jugband sound (\"Ain\'t Nobody\'s Daddy Now\"). But ever the iconoclast, Earle embarks on bold detours like the spoken Faustian-bargain tale \"The Tennessee Kid.”

Steve Earle continues his run of conceptually inspired records with a Texas blues album, an homage to the likes of Lightnin' Hopkins, Robert Johnson, and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

On the randy, low-flying Stones-evoking “Go Go Boots Are Back,” Steve Earle scrapes the same guttural rock 'n' roll that…

Steve Earle's 16th studio record, Terraplane, is being widely publicized as his divorce album; while divorce is not a new concept to Earle,...

Country rock perennial gives his slant on raw southern blues. CD new music review by Thomas H Green