Tuesday, August 12
Steve Earle

I met Steve Earle once at the Rodeo Bar in Manhattan, in what must have been about 1988. He gave me his autograph on a crumpled pack of cigarettes. The lanky Texan was slouched against a wall, and if he was not quite at the bottom of his nerve-wrenching spiral into substance abuse that would eventually land him in a correctional facility in Tennessee, he was still pretty much stoned immaculate, as Jim Morrison would put it. For those who’ve followed his career since his initial splash with the record Guitar Town in 1986, it seems no small miracle that the “Hardcore Troubadour” is out there over two-decades down the line, making some of the strongest and most personal music of his life. But Earle is a much different personality these days. His career has always been marked by restlessness and change, and increasingly he’s been an artist unafraid to frankly speak his mind on political and social issues—from the death penalty to the war on terror. What has always set him apart in this regard has been his genius for tucking his lyrics into melodies as comfortable as an old pair of jeans. His latest release, Washington Square Serenade (New West), is partly the product of living in his newly adopted home, Greenwich Village. For a guy who once famously said he’d “stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table” in his cowboy boots and say that “Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world,” it may come as a surprise that the new record is partly a nod to the 1960s folk revival that exploded from the Village, with Dylan at the forefront. He’s touring with alt.country star and wife Alison Moorer—younger sister of country star Shelby Lynne.

—buck quigley

8pm.Tralf Music Hall, 622 Main St. (852-2860/www.tralfmusichall.com). $26.50 at Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com/852-5000)