Steve Earle

Description: Alternative Country, Singer/Songwriter

Comparisons: Steve Earle's songs range in type from sounding like Bob Dylan to Hank Williams, Sr., and his subject matter tends to lean far left of typical Country music.

Trivia Fact: : Steve Earle is not only a magnificent songwriter, he's also a best-selling novelist and playwright.

Starter CDs: Train A Comin (Warner Bros., 1995). I Feel Alright (Warner Bros., 1996). El Corazon (Warner Bros., 1997). The Revolution Starts ... Now (Artemis, 2004).

Quote from Steve Earle: "Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."

Steve Earle Biography: Steve Earle grew up in a tiny town outside of San Antonio called Schertz, Texas. The oldest of five children, he was incredibly active and somewhat ADD. By the age of 14, he had moved to Houston to live with his cousin Nick Fain (a musician). By this time, Steve had already developed a prodigious gift for the guitar, and started messing around with bass guitar. He also picked up a nasty drug habit.

Still, he managed to hook up with some of the most influential mentors a budding alt.ountry hero could hope for - including Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt.

Finally in 1986, Earle found some creative grounding with RCA when he released his first record, Guitartown. He went on to release two more records for MCA, before being fired after the release of Hard Way. This provoked Steve to pawn his guitars and spend some time on the "bad side of town" doing not much more than drugs and hanging out, eventually landing in jail.

Upon his release from the County Jail four months later, Steve was off drugs and soon began playing again. He started releasing more innovative records, which included more ardently political protest tunes. A long-time anti-death penalty demonstrator, Steve started working his politics into his music.

Married six times to five different women before he turned 40, Earle has two children. He's now hailed as one of the most fantastic forces in the alt.country world.
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