hell yeah! Stever Earl is one of my heroes, man. ever since i saw him recording Johnny Come Lately in Completely Pogued, i knew this fella was one of the real deal types. I do recall perfoming a terrible version of Guitar Town in a pub karaoke one night. So, points lost there, Steve Earl, but i guess it wasn't your fault The Duke couldn't hold a damn note.

I took some photos of him when he performed at the ACLU conference in San Francisco.

And his performance should be at the end of this video.

God bless ol' Stevie.

"God bless ol' Stevie". "one of my heroes". He's a real hero all right - sympathizing with a misguided kid who wants to assist the enemy in killing innocent Americans.

"I can say anything I wanna say
So fuck the FCC..."
Does that pass for reasoned debate among you wacky radicals? It's too bad Steve Earle never again made anything as good as "Guitar Town". Now it's all heat and no light.

timmy, key word there is "misguided"

having a bit of the old humanity never did a singer a lick of harm.

Also, Copperhead Road is a masterpiece.

aw geezuz, this big loada again?

Earle's tune didn't sympathize with the kid so much as attempt to get inside of his head.

it's a country music tradition, songs written from the villain's point of view.

does this line glorify murder?

"I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die"

Yes, the Copperhead Road album is a masterpiece, though I might be a somewhat easy audience as the grandson and namesake of someone who ran bootleg liquor in Kentucky during the Prohibition.

Even better than the title track though, dig the closer, "Nothing But a Child." That's his all time best song.

Also, don't miss the underappreciated follow up album, The Hard Way, particularly "The Other Kind" and "Justice in Ontario."

By rights, Lindh should have been taken out and shot. Nonetheless, Earle wrote an exceptionally good song from his vantage point. Indeed, I picked it as one of the top 10 songs of the year.

Saleski, if ya gotta explain... nevermind. Don't try -- the rest of us got it.

Can't wait to get the new album. Steve is an American original -- and the planet is a better place with him on it writin' and singin' songs.

re: Barger's taste - good to see you can appreciate music by a true honest ta gawd American left-wing pinko.

With all this primal chest-beating, I would like to point out that Steve Earle was and is hugely popular in Canada (but then we've also got Ronnie Hawkins), selling hundreds of thousands of albums in Canada, when he couldn't get arrested in the States, well, until he got arrested.

And Timmy, I'm sure when you fall down a well, you could probably expect Steve Earle to write a damn fine song about it. More reliable than that bitch Lassie.

Is it just me, or are right-wing-nuts all Billy Ray Cyrus fans who are just pining, since the tornado took their trailer home away?

Mr Earle writes a damn good rock song, but the twang in his voice automaticlly puts him in the country bin, go figure. Unfortunately there are a lot of great artists who fall in the "Couldn't get arrested..." category, and we get fed slop by the industry.

Canada has some damn fine rockers, first and foremsot in my opinion, would have to be The Band.

Actually The Band are NAFTA before its time. You've got First Nations, Arkansanasians, Canadians and Garth Hudson from New York State.

Actually, for real Canadian country rockers you might want to check out Fred Eaglesmith, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, The New Pornographers, The Sadies (who have backed up Neko Case), Blue Rodeo, and of course The Cowboy Junkies.

did anyone see him at the ottawa folk festival last night? was he there?