So You Wannabe an Outlaw

Steve Earle & The Dukes

Released on 6/16/17 by Warner Records
Main artists: Steve Earle & The Dukes
Genre: Country

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Even if he is not from the same generation as Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver or Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle is a genuine outlaw, lock, stock and barrel. His attitude chimes with the criticisms that people have levelled against him since he started out: too rock for Nashville, too country for rock. With time, Earle made a name for himself as a great songwriter, full stop - he didn't worry too much about which musical family would adopt him. A disciple and friend of his fellow Texans Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, he was a member of the outlaw band that lived on the margins of Nashville in the Seventies. He is also a perfect Don Juan (seven marriages!), a recovered junky who endured a long descent into hell that took him as far as prison, an actor who has worked on cult series like The Wire or Treme and even a novelist (with a new collection entitled Doghouse Roses and the novel I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive). As much at home in punchy country rock and visceral folk as in bluegrass, genres which he attacks with the heart of a punk and the soul of a committed rebel engaged in all the struggles of America's radical left, the self-proclaimed hardcore troubadour here renders homage to his rebel predecessor, possibly the ultimate outlaw: Waylon Jennings. And the guitars are furious from the off, which is a side of Steve Earle we have not seen for years. From the first strands of So You Wannabe An Outlaw, the first song on the album and the one that gives it its title, the bearded man's country rock intentions are pretty clear. And even more so when we hear, in the midst of this rollocking track, the voice of Willie Nelson! Elsewhere, Earle sings a duet with Miranda Lambert on This is How It Ends, and then does the same with Johnny Bush (author of Whiskey River by Willie Nelson!) on Walkin' in LA. The record leaves us giddy and sweating, covered in dust, knuckles bloodied. Note that the Deluxe Edition contains some choice covers: Ain't No God in Mexico by Billy Joe Shaver, Sister's Coming Home/Down At The Corner Beer Joint by Willie Nelson, The Local Memory also by Willie Nelson and the immense Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way by Waylon Jennings, an outlaw hymn par excellence. © MZ/Qobuz

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So You Wannabe an Outlaw

Steve Earle

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So You Wannabe an Outlaw

Steve Earle & The Dukes