Steve Earle is 59 years old today. A singer-songwriter, record producer, author and actor, Earle grew up near San Antonio, Texas, and began learning the guitar at age 11. He began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. His breakthrough album was the 1986 Guitar Town. Since then Earle has released 13 other studio albums and received three Grammy awards. His songs have been recorded by Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Shawn Colvin and Emmy Lou Harris. He has appeared in film and television, and has written a novel, a play and a book of short stories. Earle is reported to have run away from home at age 14 to follow his idol, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt around Texas. He was rebellious as a kid and dropped out of school at the age of 16. He moved to Houston with his 19-year-old uncle, who was also a musician, where he married and worked odd jobs. While in Houston Earle finally met Van Zandt, who became his hero and role model. In 1974 at the age of 19, Earle moved to Nashville and began working blue-collar jobs during the day and playing music at night. During this period Earle wrote songs and played bass guitar in Guy Clarks band and on Clarks 1975 album Old No. 1. Earle appeared in the 1975 film Heartworn Highways, a documentary on the Nashville music scene which included Guy Clark, Townes van Zandt and Rodney Crowell. He lived in Nashville for several years and obtained a job as a staff songwriter for a publishing company called Sunbury Dunbar. In the 1980s, Earle worked as a songwriter for the publishers Roy Dea and Pat Clark. A song he co-wrote, When You Fall in Love, was recorded by Johnny Lee and made number 14 on the country charts in 1982. Carl Perkins recorded Earles song Mustang Wine, and two of his songs were recorded by Zella Lehr. Later Dea and Clark created an independent record label called LSI and invited Earle to began recording his own material on their label. Earle released an EP called, Pink & Black, in 1982 featuring his band, the Dukes. Acting as Earles manager John Lomax sent the EP to Epic Records and they signed Earle to a recording contract in 1983. In 1983 Earle signed a record deal with CBS and recorded a neo-rockabilly album.” Earle released his first full length album, Guitar Town, on MCA Records in 1986. The title track became a Top Ten single in 1986 and his song Goodbyes All Weve Got Left reached the Top Ten in 1987. That same year he released a compilation of earlier recordings entitled, Early Tracks, and an album with the Dukes, called Exit 0, which received critical acclaim for its blend of country and rock. Earles songs have been recorded by Joan Baez, The Pretenders, The Proclaimers, Eddi Reader, The Highwaymen, Waylon Jennings, Levon Helm, Emmylou Harris, Percy Sledge and Johnny Cash. Here, Earle performs “Guitar Town” in 1985.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 09:22:03 +0000
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