Steve Earle Album: “Ain't Ever Satisfied: The Steve Earle Collection”

Description :

Personnel includes: Steve Earle (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, 6-string bass); Bucky Baxter (vocals, acoustic, pedal steel, lap steel, steel & electric guitars, dobro, 6-string bass); Ken Moore (vocals, organ, keyboards, synthesizer); Bill Lloyd (acoustic & 12-string guitars); Richard Bennett (acoustic & electric guitars, guitar, 6-string bass, bass); Stacey Earle Mimms (acoustic guitar, percussion, background vocals); Paul Franklin (pedal steel guitar); John Jarvis (piano, keyboards); Reno Kling (bass); Custer (drums); Patrick Earle (percussion); The Christ Missionary Baptist Church Choir, Memphis (background vocals); The Dukes, Telluride, The Pogues. Producers include: Emory Goody, Jr., Tony Brown, Steve Earle. Compilation producer: Andy McKaie. Recorded between 1985 and 1991. Includes liner notes by Mary Katherine Aldin. Digitally remastered by Erick Labson (MCA Music Media Studios, North Hollywood, California). A definitive two-CD best-of covering Earle's work for MCA, with tracks from all his pre-drug bust albums in more or less chronological order from the 1987 GUITAR TOWN (when he was being marketed as a country artist) to the gonzo 1991 live SHUT UP AND DIE LIKE AN AVIATOR (where the grunge guitars made it clear that he wasn't). Comparisons to Springsteen and Mellencamp are accurate up to a point (as is the "Keith Richards of country" tag) but listening to this collection makes it clear that Earle's always been his own man. High points here include the superb anti-gun anthem "The Devil's Right Hand," an idiomatic live cover of Doug Sahm's "She's About a Mover," the angst-ridden "I Ain't Ever Satisfied," the Reagan-era protest "Good Ol' Boy (Getting Tough)," and a concert version of "Dead Flowers" that out-Stones the Stones, but there isn't a note here that isn't as real as it gets.

Back in 1986 I purchased the debut albums from three country artists that I thought were going to help put some integrity back in country music. Those three artists were Dwight Yoakam (Guitars, Cadilacs, etc., etc.), Randy Travis (Storms of Life) and Steve Earle (Guitar Town). While they didn't succeed in eliminating the pop excesses of what passes for country these days, they all provided a reminder of what quality country music could and should sound like.

Of the three, Earle has had the rockiest journey over the intervening fifteen years. But it's only made Earle's music all the more honest and effective. In fact, his last three albums have been among the best of his career.

This two-CD set covers most of the highlights from his five albums for MCA between 1986 and 1991. It duplicates all of the 1993 single-disc collection, The Essential Steve Earle, and adds 15 additional tracks including live recordings of "West Nashville Boogie," "She's About a Mover," "Dead Flowers" and the Bruce Springsteen cover of "State Trooper" which was previously only available as an EP. It also includes all but two of the tracks from Guitar Town, arguably his best MCA album, along with the strongest tracks from the other three studio albums: Exit O, Copperhead Road and The Hard Way.

Earle can at turns be traditional country on songs like "Hillbilly Highway," then rock out on a song like "Copperhead Road," and then join the Pogues for the Irish folk-influenced "Johnny Come Lately." And it all makes for enjoyable listening. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Like Dwight Yoakum, Steve Earle is a true blue country artist who preferrs to work outside the orbit of Nashville. Earle's gritty guitar chops and confessional storytelling remind you of a rural Bruce Springsteen (a point he brings home by covering The Boss's "State Trooper") on this album. "I Ain't Ever Satisfied" is an excellent comprehensive anthology of the first decade or so of Earle's career. It is interesting to hear the transistion from disc one to disc two as Earle's songwriting and storytelling became even more ambitious. Most of the classic album "Copperhead Road" is included on the second disc. For those who have yet to be initiated to the man and his music, this is a great place to start.

For his earlier stuff, you're not going to get a better compilation on two cds. For your money, this is the one to get. It has virtually all the tracks from "The Essential Steve Earle" and "Fearless Heart". All the classics like "Guitar Town", "Copperhead Road", "Nowhere Road", etc. plus a live version of "Dead Flowers" from "Shut Up and Die..." They're all here and I know I've mentioned this before, but if you're new to Steve, this is the best place that I can think of to start without breaking your bank.

Now the stuff that he's done in the last ten years, that's a different story. Once you've broken this one in a little, then pick up "Train a Comin'", "I Feel Alright" and "El Corazon". Let those sink in and then work yourself up from there. Then again, if you're already a fan, then you know all of this.

This is my first Steve Earle album. I became interested in Earle's music on the endorsement of Shawn Colvin (who does a wonderful take of "Someday" on her "Cover Girl" album, by the way) and this seemed a great way to get familiar. It is.

This two CD set aptly illuminates the musical changes that have taken place in Steve Earle since his earliest recordings. He certainly has two discs worth of wonderful, and often fantastic, material and this set does not disappoint.

If you haven't decided which Steve Earle album to buy first, I can certainly recommend this one.