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Steve Earle Transcendental Blues (E-Squared/Artemis Records, 2000)
review by Micah Holmquist
June 7, 2000

Nobody stands taller in music these days than Steve Earle. Creating music that is, on the whole, an equal partnership of country, folk, and rock as well an expression of emotions running the full spectrum of the human experience is just what Earle does. His latest, a collection of original songs called Transcendental Blues, is no exception to this.

The most compelling quality of Earle’s music is its restless quality. His voice always seems to enjoy life but never to be happy. At first the title cut of Transcendental Blues appears to be coming from a man perfectly at peace with himself but then Earle begins the final verse singing "If I had it my way, everything would change." It then becomes instantly clear that what he is trying to say with this mid tempo number is his acceptance of being a tortured soul. The disc will provide plenty more opportunities for these sentiments. No fewer than five of the remaining 14 cuts celebrate the rambling lifestyle in one way or the other. Earle is clearly looking to the future and moving forward.

Still he hasn’t completely forgot what happened before. "Until the Day I Die" hearkens back a year to Earle’s warmly received excursion into bluegrass The Mountain. He even takes a pot shot at the Del McCoury Band who backed Earle on The Mountain and toured with him for a couple of months before leaving because they basically didn’t like the fact that he says "fuck" a lot on stage. "There is no room in vulgarity for bluegrass," says a surly Earle at the end of the ultra-traditional cut. The floating vocals of "I Don’t Want to Lose You Yet" no doubt express a feeling that Earle —who at the age of 45 just recently ended his sixth marriage- has felt many times. Similarly "Over Yonder (Jonathan’s Song)" asserts both Earle’s longstanding opposition to the death penalty and the sense of solidarity that develops in the types of prisons that Earle spent some time in during the first half of the 1990s for drug charges.

At times Earle’s love of the Beatles causes songs like "I Can Wait" to sound like they come from the Tom Petty songbook. But Earle doesn’t overdue the jangling vocals and his deep and brooding voice gives the track a grittier feel. The appearance of Steve’s sister Stacey on the duet "When I Fall" gives the song a spark that lumbering voices like Steve’s sometimes lack.

The disc hits its peak on the thoroughly modern rocker "All My Life." Earle meditates on a lack of self-confidence and loneliness until listeners understand that when Earle sings "Ain’t nobody anywhere ever loved nothin’/Half as much as I love you" that Earle is as likely to be talking about love in the abstract as he is a particular person. The song then ends with pure lyrical and musical anger. It isn’t pleasant but it does seem real and more than one listener will relate to it. The same thing can be said for all of Transcendental Blues.

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