Steve Earle brought his solo acoustic show to the Blue Note, in Columbia, Sunday night. I got there around 7, which was the time the doors opened, but nothing started til 8. And the general admission was all seating so I could have had more free time... But apparently they had some problems getting people seated, Ticketmaster sold the seats different than they thought. So it took a little while to get it sorted out, but I wasn't going anywhere. Basically I had to switch sides from where I thought I was, 6 rows back on the far right...
Finally, Steve's wife, Allison Moorer came out at 8. A really beautiful lady with a gorgeous voice. Why she's not blasted over country radio is beyond me... Just her and an acoustic. She had a harmonica with holder on the first song, but kept falling out of place, making her yell out, "Shit!" She preformed seven songs for around half an hour. I think she played Alabama Song, but I'm not really familiar with her. But she was really talented and entertaining.
Then around 9, Mr. Earle came out. I'm not really a big fan of his the only songs I really knew were Copperhead Road and Guitar Town. I think it was just the fact he was coming to Columbia, I thought I was going to have an easy night off work and it was a solo acoustic performance.
Set List
Where I Lead Me
Colorado Girl
Rex's Blues
Ft. Worth Blues
Pancho and Lefty
Brand New Companion
Tom Ames' Prayer
My Old Friend the Blues
Someday
Taneytown
Goodbye
Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold
Marie
City of Immigrants
Days Aren't Long Enough
Dixieland
Jerusalem
The Mountain
Lungs
To Live Is To Fly
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Guitar Town
Copperhead Road
He was pretty cool with his stories. He was touring behind his album of Townes Van Zandt covers and telling of the stories of his friend/teacher/mentor. You can tell the impact he had on Steve Earle. When he introduced Pancho and Lefty, he said, "I had 28 songs I had to narrow down to 15, but I knew where to start." He then went to a parable, "On your first day in prison, they say you find the biggest motherfucker in the yard and knock him out..." He was also humorous throughout.
Earle got political a couple of times. Once before Jerusalem going on against Obama and the Iraq War, then before The Mountain against clean coal technology(which is a pretty nasty business no matter which way you cut it). But every with a somber tone to the concert, he was pretty upbeat with his attitude.
Highlights for me included City of Immigrants where Moorer came out and joined him midway through. She dueted with him on the next song as well. Dixieland was good he was playing a mandolin here. He also played a bouzouki, a banjo-like instrument on a number, which he warned at airports to just say is a banjo. I've heard My Old Friend the Blues before as well after I started hearing it and I had listened to The Mountain album recently so I enjoyed The Mountain as well. To Live is To Fly was rousing for the ultimate song in the main set. The encores were feet stamping joys as expected.
Not writing this immediately afterwards, makes me hazy on other thoughts on songs. But here's a review from a KC show . Kind of disappointed that it looked like he told the same stories he told in Columbia, making it a paint-by-numbers sort of thing. The review gets some of the feelings on the songs played.
But just the warmth and excitedness he had while performing made it seem unique. He actually cared and not just phoning it in with the hokeyness that some artists do.
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