Top Ten Songs by Steve Earle
Steve got his first guitar at the age of eleven and learned to play it very quickly. By age thirteen he was doing drugs, something he would continue to do for many years and would almost wreck his life and career.
Steve, like Willie Nelson, was known as a songwriter before he was known as a musician. Many artists have recorded songs he’s written for a number of years.
Steve met Townes Van Zandt while he lived in Houston and later said that Townes was a great inspiration but a bad role model. In 1974 he moved to Nashville and became the bass player for Guy Clark. He later released a few singles of his own but they received poor promotion and didn’t go anywhere.
In 1986 he released the album, “Guitar Town“. By then he was addicted to heroin and drinking heavily. The album got labeled as “New Country”. Two other artists came out that year and were labeled the same, Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakam. They were very different from Steve. He was the bad boy of country music and they were the good guys. Nashville, of course, saw them as safe bets and gave more recognition and airtime to Travis and Yoakam. But Steve was getting recognition as a song writer.
By 1990, his drug and alcohol habits were taking their toll on him; he was losing friends and alienating the people in the music industry. MCA decided not to renew his contract because of his habits. In 1991 he was arrested on drug charges and sent to prison. It was this time in his life he decided he needed help and entered rehab. He was released from prison in 1995 and his song, “Sometimes She Forgets” became a hit for Travis Tritt hitting the charts at #7.
He’s done several songs that were included in movie soundtracks like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “Dead Man Walking”.
Steve Earle has had nine nominations for Grammy Awards, named Country Artist of the Year in 1986 by Rolling Stone, received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, and won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2005.
Steve Earle has been a political activist for several causes including, the death penalty and the war in Iraq.
This top ten list of Steve Earle’s songs is comprised of some of his best works and not necessarily his popular works, although they are well recognized.
1. “Copperhead Road” takes the lead because it is his most well-known song. It was on the 1988 album, “Copperhead Road.”
2. “Devil’s Right Hand” is also from the 1988 album, “Copperhead Road“, and when Emmy Lou Harris heard it for the first time she said, “It’s one of the most perfect songs I’ve ever heard.”
3. “Guitar Town” from the 1985 album, “Guitar Town” was the first popular song.
4. “My Old Friend the Blues” from the 1985 album, “Guitar Town“.
5. “Someday” from the 1985 album, “Guitar Town.”
6. “The Rain Came Down“, from the 1987 album, “Exit 0″ and falls in line with other songs about farming and the heartland by artists like John Cougar Mellencamp.
7. “Nowhere Road” from the 1987 album “Exit 0″.
8. “The Other Kind” from the 1990 album, “The Hard Way” is more of an anthology of Steve himself.
9. “Billy Austin” from the 1990 album, “The Hard Way” is a haunting ballad about a man on death row. Steve tells the story in vivid detail.
10. “Sometimes She Forgets” from the 1995 album, “Train A Comin’” was previously recorded by Travis Tritt.
While these songs may not be his most popular, they define his talent as a song writer and musician. Steve Earle may have had a hard life and a jaded music career but he is still in the business, drug free and continues to make music his way.
