Steve Earle Album: “The Hard Way”

This was the last Steve Earle cd I thoroughly enjoyed and incidentally, was the last one he did (that we're aware of...)while indulging in the "ecstacies" of drug addiction. This Steve was emaciated, unpredictable, and, in my opinion, at the peak of his creativity. It was the last recording session that incorporated that trademark 80's Steve Earle sizzle : razor sharp, digital production, with what I consider to be the best version of the Dukes ever assembled, Steve's fiery, angry and deliberate vocal delivery, and guitar power that peeled the paint off the walls. Man, I miss that. The only "political" reference would be the anti-death penalty "Billy Austin" in which Earle sings, in the first person, about a 29 yr old that's "quarter Cherokee I'm told" who kills a service station attendant while robbing the place and won't say "...I don't deserve to die". Earle's gift has always been putting flesh on stories about real people in real life, dealing with real situations without being "preachy" and this work follows that direction. "Have Mercy" is a little collage of three different stories in which reasonably good people do bad things for reasons that we tend to offer a little mercy to once we've heard their perspectives. The opening track, "The Other Kind", is my favorite with classic lines galore: "I'm the apple of my Momma's eye, and my Daddy's worst fears realised". "Esmerelda's Hollywood" is a truly great piece of penmanship in which the title character is representative of the many young female hopefuls who came to Tinsel Land with big dreams and wound up ghosts, haunting the corner of Hollywood and Vine. I don't like the stuff Earle has done after "El Corazon" as it is too lo-fi and garagy sounding with Earle mumbling and hardly singing at all; I dearly love everything from "The Hard Way" back: full of fire, hunger, and an intense desire to portray simple life as if it were on the big screen of a small town drive-in. John Steinbeck would have been proud.

The only one of Earle's major label records out of print in America, The Hard Way was Earle's Big Rock Move, with that mid-to-late 80s sheen to the production and arrangements that lean towards Springsteenish populist bombast. It has only a handful of classics, including the deliberately silly "Regular Guy," the melodramatic "Esmeralda's Hollywood" and "Justice in Ontario" and the vicious "The Other Kind," my personal fave. It also has "Billy Austin," a character study of a convicted killer on death row that presaged his future political obsession with the death penalty. As the reviewer below notes, this is not the Earle album to start with, but diehard fans have gotta have it. Not a great album, but not a bad one either.

Steve Earle has been called "The Outlaw Country Singer," but I'd prefer to call him "The Hot-blooded Hillbilly." His voice is closer to the hills of Tennessee than the Black Hat Nashville Boys that make up the Top-10 Country Chart. The Hard Way rocks like the tough hitting music of early Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. You'll also find heavy doses of Bruce Springsteen craftsmanship (Promise You Anything, Hopeless Romantics). The blues guitar grove on `West Nashville Boogie' would make B. B. King proud. No one has charged a two-step dance number with as much electricity as "Regular Guy.' And `When The People Find Out' is so spiritual that it would be welcome in any God-fearin' Southern Baptist Church.

Steve and The Dukes may rock with the brawn of a Peterbuilt, but Steve's lyrics have a softer touch. It's not necessary to listen to `Hopeless Romantics' to realize that Steve is, well, a sensitive guy. You may give a second thought concerning the death penalty after the poignant `Billy Austin.' And the miscarriage of vigilante justice is examined in `Justice In Ontario.' Lastly, `Close You Eyes' is a solemn anthem to living one day at a time. Steve Earle does just that - making kinetic music like there was no tomorrow.

Technical note: The original 1990 MCA release is a flawless DDD recording.

This is my favorite Steve Earle album. The feeling behind these songs...well, he not only wrote 'em, it's obvious he also lived them. By the time I got this CD it was from a cut out bin. Then I lost it and had to buy another. About 4 years later while moving furniture the first copy fell out of the lazy boy chair. This album has staying power.

Most people don't write or play so well without any impediments. "Hard Way" came to be during the worst of Earle's drug addiction and it's clearly a crucible time for him. Writing's amazing as always--singing and orchestration are also good. Of course, as many folks way, Steve can't make a bad CD.

"Billy Austin" is one of the hardest songs I've ever heard. Earle can write and sing from the point of view of an outlaw better than almost anyone I've heard. "Justice in Ontario" continues that theme. Ironic Earle himself followed this CD with time in prison.

This CD's labeled country, but I'm seeing too many rock elements to leave it strictly at that.