Disco de Steve Earle: “Sidetracks”

Overshadowed by the controversy that surrounded Steve's "Jerusalem" album last year, this unassuming CD is a hidden gem. Essentially, it's a hodgepodge collection of B-sides and other assorted songs from the vault. But unlike most other albums of this kind, it's listenable from start to finish.

What the album lacks in cohesiveness, it makes up for in musicianship and enthusiasm. The CD blasts off with "Some Dreams," a defiant, rollicking country rocker that Steve wrote for the Dennis Quaid film, "The Rookie." In the song, Steve slyly reminds us that "some dreams don't ever come true... but some dreams do." And "Dominick St." and "Sara's Angel" are two joyous bluegrass instrumentals from the "Transcendental Blues" sessions.

Steve has a lot of fun with an eclectic array of covers, too. He injects a little twang and a lot of attitude in his cover of Nirvana's "Breed." Little Feat's "Willin'" is transformed into a easygoing bluegrass number. And Steve's emotional rendering of the Bob Dylan classic, "My Back Pages," closes the album gracefully.

About the only track that fails on any level is "Time Has Come Today," his duet with Sheryl Crow. The song itself is pretty good... a little more polished than usual for Steve, but enjoyable nonetheless. But the song inexplicably splices 60s-era speeches from Abbie Hoffman and others in the middle of verses that adds nothing to the song.

Overall, I highly recommend this collection to Steve's fans. Neophytes may be better served with other albums including "Transcendental Blues", "I Feel Alright" and "Guitar Town". Even so, fans and nonfans alike will have a lot of fun listening to this one. Enjoy!

While all these tracks are from Steve's inspired period (from Train A-Comin' through Transcendental Blues), and therefore all of high quality, the only reason I did not rate this a full five stars is because I already own five of the tracks.

And though Earle's albums can be all over the map (El Corazon & Transcendental Blues), they still manage to create an amazing sense of continuity from track to track. Here, however, the nature of the collection provides for a mish mash of songs that are at times shocking in their sequencing.

That said, I love this album. It's great to hear his amazing cover of "Willin'" and "My Back Pages" (far superior to the soundtrack version, bad notes and all). I would have been happier to trade in the relatively easy to find "rarities" ("Me and the Eagle", "Johnny Too Bad", "Time Has Come Today", "Ellis Unit One" and "Creepy Jackalope Eye") for some more new tracks, live tracks, or demos. But that's nitpicking.

The collection reflects Steve's broad range and appeals more to true fans than the casual listener. It's probably not a good place for someone to start.

I have only been a Steve Earle fan since "Trancedental Blues" and have been looking to go back and try some his older music. But then "Sidetracks " was released yesterday. Holy Cow!! If these are outtakes then I am not worthy of hearing the first rate stuff. His covers of "Time Has Come Today" and "Willin'" just knocked me out. The Little Feat's number is one of my all-tome favorite songs. Everything is done here from Jamaican to Celtic and all points in between. Give a special listen to "Some Dreams", "Me And The Eagle", "Ellis Unit One" and "My Uncle". Even the instrumentals are outstanding. If you like Lucinda Williams or John Hiatt you will love "Sidetracks" !

Steve Earle is my favorite songwriter. I have to buy anything he appears on, period. But for you not so familiar with Steve Earle, this is a cool record to get to see that he has many many different sides to his music and his songs. From serious (Elis Unit 1)to funny (Creepy Jackalope Eye), rock your face off (Nirvana's "Breed")-hillbilly, country, irish, regge-its all in there. It is not intented to be an "Album"-so don't look for a concept here, just a bunch of songs that may not hang together at all, but, stand up well on their own.

You may prefer to get one of his older recordings also, but be warned, his albums change complection all the time and you just never know for sure what style he's into-they are all good-great songs-this album is like a sampler of what Steve Earle is capable of. Buy it now!!!!!!!

The song "Me and the Eagle" is worth the price of the album alone. I'm amazed other artists have not picked up this song and recorded it themselves. It has a sort of epic feel and for the few minutes you listen to it, you're out there on the mountain with the guy in the song.

I can't wait for Jerusalem