Mascha Drost: Earle calls himself a “socialist”, he fights for green issues, he fights against the death penalty and for the self-determination of women. With his long hair and long beard, he looks more like an “outlaw” than a well-bred Nashville country musician. His new album “Ghosts of West Virginia” has just been released. Who is this Steve Earle?
To Kober: Well, Steve Earle said goodbye to Nashville a long time ago and actually he was never really home there. Earle is now 65, he left home as a teenager to meet his great idol, singer-songwriter Townes van Zandt, the inventor of the outlaw country, so to speak, and to learn music from him. He also succeeded. However, he also noted the consumption of alcohol and drugs at the same time, so in addition to some successes in the national charts, he attracted attention mainly through his escapades and at the height of them he even had to go to jail for a while. .
Earle has been understated and prolific since the mid-1990s. He releases an album every two years or so, sometimes better, sometimes worse. You actually wish Steve Earle had a break where you could focus and find the sound of him again. Class instead of mass. But that’s exactly what happened now. We can also speak of a concept album.
Trade union tradition
Shock: Concept albums are pretty rare in country music, what is it about?
Rug: The album is called “Ghosts Of West Virginia” and is mainly about a West Virginia mine accident in 2010 that killed 29 people.
Steve Earle actually wrote some of these pieces for the comedy “Coal Country”, but then he went a little further, composed more songs, and then talks about this coal mining region in general and of course the people. who live and work there.
West Virginia is one of the poorest areas in the US and has a strong union political tradition, also due to mining, for which the Democrats have always been elected for a long time. More recently, however, nearly 69 percent voted for Donald Trump and Steve Earle is clearly left-wing politically, so this album is also the beginning of a dialogue for him, as he puts it, because one of the biggest dangers for him is the thought that all Trump voters are idiots and racists because that is simply not true.
the right voice
And so Steve Earle provides a kind of lyrical guide through an area and through biographies that are probably unknown to most. And he has exactly the right voice to sing about these simple subjects.
Shock: His voice sounds almost as if he too had worked as a miner, but do you think the musician, who hasn’t lived like these people, cares about these arguments?
Rug: I think so. He takes people’s worries, their fears, lack of perspective and even this feeling of being useless seriously. There is a song, “It’s about Blood”, where Steve Earle lists all 29 names of those who died in this mining accident, it might be pathetic, but it’s a very touching moment, and believable too, you can feel that he doesn’t really care he wants to annoy these people, he actually seems to care.
But there are not only sad or angry songs, on the contrary, most of the album is quite lively, danceable and upbeat, played very powerfully by his longtime band “The Dukes”, sometimes acoustic and folk, to sometimes rough and electric, and in addition it is also a musical expression of respect for this territory.
Crucible in the Appalachians
Shock: Interestingly, what kind of musical tradition does West Virginia have?
Rug: West Virginia is located in the Appalachians, a mountain range that crosses the east coast states from Maine to Alabama and Mississippi, and over time it is a music of its own, a mix of its own. The Appalachian Mountains are a melting pot of immigrants from Europe and African Americans, that is, former slaves, and you can also hear this mixture, there were already yodeling or Scottish blues musicians accompanying their folk songs with banjo, which actually is a African instrument is.
In principle, everything that today is called bluegrass or country or old-time music was invented here, and this Steve Earle album also uses this rich musical culture, along with a very nice traditional, “John Henry Was a Steel Drivin ‘Man “, John Henry, is an often sung, almost mythical folk hero who juxtaposes his strength to that of machines.
Shock: Who was this John Henry?
Rug: John Henry is said to have lived in the mid 19th century, he was a so-called cutter, his job was to dig holes in the rock for railway tunnels. When he should have been replaced by a car, he entered a competition with it and won it, but, so it is said, he died of exhaustion soon after.
Shock: In general, it all sounds a bit nostalgic and historicizing, wouldn’t a breath of fresh air have made these arguments better?
Rug: Well, there is such a spirit of solidarity that blows into this album and protest songs, songs about the union and the working conditions of the miners, have a great tradition here, Steve Earle joins now. Earle actually conjures up a dream throughout the album, the dream of a simple life where you get paid well for your hard work, it’s about community, family, pride – these are timeless values and at the moment it feels like a big desire. give later.
I really like that these themes aren’t portrayed in a cheesy and kitschy way, the whole thing is more of the musical counterpart to a Ken Loach movie, you might say.
It probably won’t be decided by the next presidential election, but there should be more music that is so soulful, emphatic and connecting.
