Steve Earle has turned to the blues, and it seems that his seventh divorce (this time from the singer Allison Moorer) is responsible. The wild new hero of the country scene in the mid 1980s, he became one of Americana’s bravest songwriters by mixing rock, bluegrass and Celtic influences with often outspoken political comment. But his latest album, Terraplane, is different. It’s his first all-blues set, with several songs about divorce, and was performed here almost in its entirety.
A burly figure with long beard and jeans, he came on playing harmonica, stomping through Baby Baby Baby (Baby), a song more remarkable for its energy than lyrical subtlety. He discussed watching Lightnin’ Hopkins before easing into Ain’t Nobody’s Daddy Now (with a chorus of “I’m free”), and was joined by Eleanor Whitmore, the fiddler with his fine band the Dukes, for a gloriously slinky duet on the jazzy shuffle Baby’s Just As Mean As Me. His best new blues were left until last, and included the pained and bitter Better Off Alone and the powerful King of the Blues, the only blues I know containing the word “Dickensian”. As a reminder of his earlier blues, he included CCKMP (Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain), written during his “nightmare” years as a junkie. It was impressively raw and powerful.
He constantly swapped guitars and mandolin during this epic 29-song set, which also included a cheerful revival of The Galway Girl and a regulation stomp through Guitar Town and Copperhead Road. The emphasis was on personal rather than political songs (Jerusalem and John Walker’s Blues sadly didn’t fit the mix), but the encores showed that he is thinking beyond blues and divorce. Mississippi, It’s Time, released last month as a digital single, was an angry attack on the continued use of the Confederate flag, and one of the best songs of the night.
- At Limelight, Belfast, 23 October. Box office: 028-9032 7007. Then touring.
