Transcendental Blues by Steve Earle
Listen To The Words, Not The Noise.
After Steve Earle redrew a handful of musical maps with 1997s El
Corazon, it was surprising to hear the troubadour team with Del McCoury
on the unabashed bluegrass set The Mountain. In truth, El Corazon paved
the way for Transcendental Blues. Here Earle returns back to the sprawl of
El Corazon. Theres Spartan, yearning folk in Over Yonder, boot-scooting
grass on Until the Day I Die, and ear-pinning rock on Everyones in Love
with You. Earle rescues the connection between Ireland and American
traditionalism with the mandolin-driven Galway Girl and even seems
inspired by fables with The Boy Who Never Cried. Earle shows again and
again that hes a consummate indexer, demonstrating how American music
crisscrosses distinct styles. As a singer, Earle is alternately snarly, wispy,
guttural, and earnest. In short, hes able to shake the ear with a fresh
musical twist and then settle the listener with all the broad-minded smarts
hes relied upon since his mid-90s comeback. --Andrew Bartlett
Transcendental Blues is an album devoted to, as Earle's liner notes
indicate, going through something. Usually something quite painful. And
so he has delivered an album occupied by songs full of sorrow, regret,
loneliness and lost love. It's easily the most personal album of hi s career,
and also the best. Earle veers through varied musical terrain from
Beatlesque pop, to bluegrass, to celtic flavored rock to dusty folk ballads
and back again. It's eclectic but never to the point of being distracting
since it's all held together by consistently excellent songwriting (some of
the best of Earle's career) and heartfelt lyrics pulled from Steve's aching
heart and given added punch via his grizzled vocal delivery. On "Lonelier
than This" he states that he's "tired of wearing his heart outside of his skin"
and that he's "scared to death we'll never touch again". Elsewhere he tells
a lover that he's "Not ready to lose you yet". And on "Galway Girl" he
poses the question "What's a guy to do when her hair is black and her
eyes are blue?". Yes, love, loss and the fear that goes along with both run
throughout the 15 songs collected here. Thankfully, Earle helps us as well
as himself transcend the pain by delivering teriffic music that serves as a
soothing balm to the stings and cuts dealt out by a cruel world. He doesn't
give any easy answers with these songs. It's like he says in his liner notes:
sometimes transcendence is being able to stay still enough long enough to
realize it's time to move on. That's not a pleasant sentiment, b ut thankfully
the medicine goes down a little easier with music of this caliber to
accompany it.
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