Steve Earle Album: “Exit 0”

During a 1986 tour stop in New York City, Earle sat for an interview with Rolling Stone and promised his next album was "already 3/4 written" and would be "more political." Released in early 1987 with virtually no label support due to his increasing dependence on addictive drugs, Earle pushed "Exit 0" sales into the six-figure realm through relentless touring and word of mouth. Earle had been performing some of the escapist-themed tunes here - "The Week of Living Dangerously," "Sweet Little 66," and the haunting "Number 29" for more than a year, and the masterful farm anthem "The Rain Came Down" was added "strictly out of guilt 'cause no one at Farm Aid knew who I was." There is heightened restlessness ("I Ain't Ever Satisfied") alongside youthful exhuberance ("San Antonio Girl") sometimes placing the listener in a quandry, but only because Earle's tautly-drawn characters are so believable. Producer Richard Bennett's trademark 6-string bass is not as prominent, which was probably a signpost of Earle's desire to venture into rock territory on future projects. Regardless of which camp he intended to visit, Exit 0 makes for a most interesting stop.

I bought this tape at a flea market in Arizona the next day on the way to California I opened the tape and the soundtrack to Labamba was inside imagine the anger.I did get the tape and wore it out No.29 is haunting ,a man reflecting on what once was in his past talking about the pain of an old football injury but it reminds him when is was No.29.The song angry young man is a great is another great piece.Thank God Steve did not die young like Hank or Gram.Get this cd if you can

In a determined move to take control of the character of his sound, Steve Earle rides the faders into the red zone, mixing brittle country steel with a revved up guitar licks and forces his way past corporate country experts to begin the definition of a genre. Subtley blending his vocal twang and storytime lyrics with hot guitars and RnR attitude, he opens the bar room door and sucks you in. Just about the time you think that Music Row has a place for him, he sneaks in a harmonica ala Dylan and introduces you to an Angry Young Man, a TexMex San Antonio harlot complete with cheezy Sam the Sham Farfisa Organ, and the declaration of his intention to take life on his OWN terms.. I Aint Ever Satisfied. It proved to be quite prophetic. A clinic in writing and recording for the sake of the song. Townes would be proud.

My introduction to Steve Earle and the Dukes was almost a total accident. I seldom listen to country music and don't particularly care for most of it. The strange thing here is that I had added a compact disc player to my new stereo system and I was enjoying the stunning new sound. Most of the recordings I was buying were classical, and there was a reason. They were digitally recorded. Popular music of that day (late 80s) was recorded mostly on analogue tape, then mastered and transfered to the digital compact discs. Purists said this was okay, but for really pristine digital sound you ought to be getting recordings that were totally digitally recorded, mastered and put out on digital discs. It maid sense. So I started looking for DDD discs, as they were called, but there were few examples available. One that I found was the Steve Earle CD "Exit 0." Okay, I'd never heard of Steve Earle and didn't particularly like country music, but it was worth a try. And sure enough, the sound was excellent. Just what I wanted, audiowise.

Well, it also turned out that the music was excellent. That was a real surprise. I really enjoyed this disc! Steve sings and plays guitars and the harmonica. Other musicians add backing vocals, bass guitar, other guitars, organ, synthesizer and drums. A few other instruments are tossed in such as piano, mandolin and accordian. It's effective. Real nice band along with the excellent sound! Steve Earle delivers the lead vocals. It's somewhat twangy and world weary. He sings of the road, his car his girl, his drinking and what pees him off. It's a nice mix. Real country. Delightful! I thoroughly enjoyed the album in addition to the pristine DDD sound. Somewhat strangely, I've never followed it up with further Steve Earle discs and now I'm almost totally into electronic music. But I've got a lot of respect for Steve Earle and maybe I ought to listen to a bit more of country music.

Gary Peterson

if you like steve earl you will like this album he sounds great songs are great good sound nice beat and like musicquality