360 records from 2000: 65. Steve Earle: Transcendental blues

65. Steve Earle: Transcendental blues

Country: US
Artist: Male solo artist
Career: recording since 1986
Language: English
Genre: Roots rock

This was the first Steve Earle I owned. As the years passed, four or five more passed through, but none of them are here still. ‘Transcendental blues’ is alone again – none of the others get halfway near what I’m getting from this one.

It feels like the songs are just tumbling out of him on this record. Fifteen of them pass by in quick succession on the album, all of them so different from each other, as compositions all of them sound completely natural, like they were just picked out of the air. You don’t get that feeling often.
What I like about it, is it sounds like every track (or at least in groups of 2 or 3) was recorded as separate entities – arranged and produced according to its own internal logic and the circumstances of that particular moment in the studio – and Earle was taking some liberties with the roots rock he’s so familiar with (I think his Beatles albums got some regular spins around this time). The first half just flits from side to side. Opener ‘Transcendental blues’ drones in on tablas (uncredited but that’s what it sounds like), moogs and harmonium, and an Eastern scale on a distorted guitar. ‘Everyone’s in love with you’ is rocking pop with backwards solos. ‘I can wait’ is touching balladry, ‘The boy who never cried’ a parable for bouzouki and string quartet, ‘Steve’s last ramble’ Irish folk taped in Dublin with a local band etc. Roots rockers aren’t well known for experimentalism, it’s true, and this isn’t as far out as that, but he’s delving deep into his bag of musical tricks.

Of course it wouldn’t work without songs of quality, and he’s got them in spades. As the title says, it’s all in a roundabout way tied to transcendence. ‘I have spent most of my life (like most people) avoiding transcendence at all costs, mainly because the shit hurts,’ he writes in the liner notes. It’s good he took the trouble. There isn’t a songwriter out there who shouldn’t feel lucky to see the likes of ‘I can wait’, ‘Lonelier than this’ or ‘Over yonder’ materialize.

By the next album he was back on the political horse – I wish him luck with that.

At its best: Transcendental blues, I can wait, Lonelier than this, When I fall, Over yonder (Jonathan’s song)