And another alphabetically out of step new acquisition...normal service will be restored real soon... 

If you read Steve Earle’s sleeve notes for “So You Wannabe An Outlaw” the album is dedicated to the memory of Waylon Jennings. So the outlaw in the title is an outlaw country singer rather than a Billy The Kid type o' lawbreaker. The outlaw country singers were a group of artists who rose to prominence in that 70’s and 80’s including (but not limited to) Waylon, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Merle Haggard. Some of those guys had been in the business since the 50’s but in the period in question they broke away from the all powerful Nashville machine and reclaimed their creative freedom.

That outlaw country ethic is continued still by people like Sturgill Simpson and, of course  Steve Earle. He learned his trade at the feet of masters like Waylon, Tompall Glaser and Townes van Zandt as a 20 year old who had runaway from a normal life to pitch up in Nashville and be a songwriter. On opening song “So You Wannabe An Outlaw” he shares a little of what he’s learned, snarling 

“So you wanna be an outlaw, buddy take it from me,

This living on the highway ain’t everything it’s supposed to be”

He then hands the second verse over to a genuine Outlaw, Willie Nelson. This album is Steve Earle getting back to the Country after his Blues album “Terraplane” and a folky collaboration with Shawn Colvin and next song “Lookin’ For A Woman” is real Country. 

“The Firebreak Line” is a tribute to the firefighters who take on the wildfires in the US and nods its head to Ed Pulaski who invented the axe you commonly see US firefighters wielding which is known as a Pulaski. That’s followed by a beautiful ballad, “News From Colorado”, written with ex wife Allison Moorer and his niece Emily Earle.

Elsewhere in those sleevenotes we mentioned earlier, Earle admits that being out on the edges of society, as he and many of his mentors have been for much of their careers, means loss comes naturally and he’s been attending a lot of funerals recently. Waylon has gone now, so recently have Merle Haggard, Leon Russell and two of Earle’s “personal teachers” Steve Young and Guy Clark, the latter of whom is the subject of the album propers final song “Goodbye Michelangelo”.

This  2xLP version includes the albums 12 tracks plus 4 tracks from the Deluxe CD edition, covers of songs by Billie Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings quite superb “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way”, it’s a pretty damned good version of it too.

This as is good a Steve Earle album as I’ve heard. There’s Country, there’s angry, there’s tributes to ordinary workin’ folk and a couple of great ballads. Steve is one o’ the good ones and worth some of anybody’s time.

The Firebreak Line - https://youtu.be/81QQEblc8HQ?si=DxMy21DKUKGi3CCP

A recent addition and so here’s one out of alphabetical step for you today…

A 2017 Record Store Day (yeuch <spit>) release, a limited edition of 4000 copies worldwide, that today commands quite the price. Its USP (that’s unique selling point for those of you that haven’t been in sales as long as I have) is that it was recorded live, at Nashville’s Welcome To 1979 studio, direct to acetate and not to tape, so no fixing mistakes, overdubs or remixes, what was played is what you get. 

It’s a six track, what used to be called, mini-album made up of 5 cover versions of songs by the Rolling Stones (“Can't You Hear Me Knocking” and “Sway”), John Prine (“Storm Windows”), Bruce Springsteen (“Atlantic City”) and George Jackson (“Heart On A String”, a version of which is also on on Isbell’s 2011 album “Here We Rest”). The final song is one Isbell wrote for the Drive-By Truckers “Never Gonna Change”.

I acquired this recently in a collection I bought. I don’t know why I didn’t get it at the time as I recall I did get 2 copies from local participating record shops for friends, I just passed on it at the time. It’s an interesting listen, I do like covers albums, but there’s a bit too much fretw@nking going on for my liking. I know Isbell is a frighteningly accomplished guitar player but it’s the songwriter I’m interested in (yes I know, I get the irony that this is chiefly a covers album) so when he lets rip with the extended solos live I tend to zone out. 

My main interest in this particular record is Isbell’s fine cover of Springsteen which I present below for your enjoyment. A record for the completists really.

Atlantic City - https://youtu.be/sqNidJ-cbOY?si=A61d8V00_68Tna2Y

Darwen, a small market town of around 30,000 residents, so a little under half the size of Shrewsbury where our shop is sited, sits 5 miles south of Blackburn, Lancashire. On Bank Holiday Monday May 27th 2013, The Wonder Stuff played on a makeshift, ramshackle stage sited in the Main Square in the pissing rain at the Darwen Live free festival. Also on the bill at the festival that day were a band from Leigh, Greater Manchester who my brother Miles wandered off to see. And that’s how we discovered The Lottery Winners.

Now right up front I want to assure you I really like the Lottery Winners. They are a supremely wonderful live band, Thom Rylance is as good a frontman as you'll find anywhere, part Noddy Holder (without THAT voice), part stand up comedian. I’ve bought their records, seen uncountable live shows and toured with them. But I am gonna start with a whinge. I have opening song, “The Meaning Of Life”, on the EP it was originally released on in 2016 and compared to that, the version they chose as track 1 side 1 on their debut album is a reet dogs breakfast. I don’t know who chose to re-arrange it and change the lyrics, whether it was the band or producer Tristan Ivemy, but whoever it was, it didn’t need it.

Fortunately tracks 2, 3 and 4 on side 1 are all perfect pop beauties that make up for that first aberration. “Little Things”, “21” and “I Don’t Love You” are bloody fantastic pop tunes, the kind you want to hear at a gig while you’re right down the front bouncing up and down and screaming along to the chorus. Over on Side 2 the “Elizabeth” and “I Know” (it becomes the perfect audience participation song live) continue with the bangers.

And that’s the thing about the Lottery Winners, whether on record or live, they grab your attention, the melodies are infectious, they make you want to bounce and sing along. You’ll not find the meaning of life (boom-boom) or any great earth shattering statements in here. What you will find is bloody wonderful pop music. If that’s the sort of thing you like and you’ve not partaken yet…what the hell are you waiting for ?

Little Things - https://youtu.be/-psEJCGrkIc?si=O5-_kvCBjKGzFrNy