On April 5, 2010, around 1,000 feet below ground, a coal dust explosion at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in Montcoal,  Raleigh County, West Virginia killed twenty-nine of the thirty-one miners who were working that day. It was the worst mining accident in the United States since 1970. A state investigation found in December 2011 that the mine owners were directly responsible for the Upper Big Branch mine disaster citing that flagrant safety violations contributed to the explosion. In 2012 the mines owners said it would be permanently closed.

“Ghosts Of West Virginia” is the soundtrack to the off-Broadway play “Coal Country” written about the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster. Steve Earle collaborated on the play written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, drawing on interviews with survivors and families of the miners. In the song “It’s About Blood” Earle reads out the names of all 29 miners that died in the disaster.

That very angry song is followed on the album by the devastatingly beautiful “If I Could See Your Face Again”, sung from the point of view of a bereaved wife by Dukes Fiddle player Eleanor Whitmore. It’s one of Steve Earle’s very best songs and honestly makes me wanna cry every time I hear it.

“Ghosts Of West Virginia” met with almost universal critical acclaim. The whole album doesn’t last 30 minutes, it’s bloody wonderful.

If I Could See Your Face Again - https://youtu.be/CAEe2ngQCj8

There are huge holes in my Steve Earle record collection, I was in CD/download mode during most of these releases. I’ve got a notion to collect all the albums with Tony Fitzpatrick sleeves and this is one of those. Released in 2007, my copy is a 2020 re-issue on sparkly gold vinyl, “Washington Square Serenade” was Steve Earle’s 12th studio album. By now you know what you’re getting with a Steve Earle record, out on the fringes of “country” music with an eye on societies injustices but still able to conjure a great love song when required.

In part this album is about Earle leaving Nashville (the titular “Guitar Town” of his 1986 debut album) and relocating to New York. It starts right up front in “Tennessee Blues" when he sings "Won't be back no more, boss, you won't see me around, Goodbye, Guitar Town”; "Down Here Below" chronicles the haves in their skyscraping penthouses seen beside the have-nots living down in the subway; "City of Immigrants”, recorded with NY Brazilian ex-pat group Forro in the Dark, celebrates NY’s global make up. Elsewhere “Days Aren’t Long Enough” is a cool duet sung with his (then) wife Allison Moorer and the album finishes on a cover of Tom Waits “Way Down In The Hole”, used as the theme tune to series 5 of “The Wire” in which Earle had a recurring role as a drug counsellor (!) in three series of the show.

“Washington Square Serenade” is not Steve Earle’s greatest album, if you’re curious about his stuff it’s not where you wanna start, but I like what he does so it’s all good with me. I really do need to fill those holes tho’.

Days Aren’t Long Enough - https://youtu.be/LClZO4E_hcQ

Back in the 80’s I knew this guy, name of Billy Bannister, actually “knew” isn’t the right thing to say cos I still see Billy around Shrewsbury sometimes. Anyways, Billy was in a band called Kiev Exocet that my band, The Libertines, would do gigs with every now and again. Billy was fiercely left wing, a devotee of Joe Strummer and The Clash and every time we got to talk he always managed to squeeze in a mention of Steve Earle. I never did anything about that at the time. Steve Earle ? That’s country and western right ? Naaaah, not for me, or so I thought at the time ?

Fast forward maybe 15 years or so and I’d discovered that actually, country and western, or more accurately country music (there’s a difference), was for me and on one of those cover mounted CD’s on the glossy music mags we’ve talked about before was a track titled “The Revolution Starts Now” by that guy that Billy used to talk about, Steve Earle. So let’s have a listen shall we, and…f*cking hell this country boy is more Punk Rock than most of those that claim to be punk rockers these days. I could instantly see where Billy had been coming from.

I downloaded the whole album (it was those times and proved expensive in the long run as the LP cost me a small fortune many years later!) and none of it disappointed. It’s an album primarily concerned with the aftermath of the Iraq war and US militarisation that still finds room for a gorgeous duet with Emmylou Harris on “Comin’ Around”.

Apart from the title song, which tops and tails the album in two slightly differing versions and outlines how nothing changes until you change yourself and your immediate surroundings, I’m gonna highlight two other songs here. 

Firstly “Rich Man’s War” which I believe bought Steve Earle a mountain of criticism back in the US. Verse one is about Jimmy, who joined the Army cos there was no other choice, no jobs where he lived. He has dreams of learning a trade, moving to the city and getting married. But right now he’s rolling into Baghdad wondering how all this happened…”Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war”…in verse two we meet Bobby, a patriot with an eagle and flag tattoo. He left behind his wife and baby to chase ghosts in the desert while back at home his car was repossessed…”Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war”…finally we’re introduced to Ali who grew up in Gaza throwing rocks at tanks. He’s persuaded by a fat man in a shiny car to praise Allah and strap on a suicide bomb…”Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war”…BOOM!

Secondly I’ll tell you about “The Gringo’s Tale”. Here we have another unnamed patriot from a military family who’s now living in Mexico, ageing, maybe on the run from his past (mis)deeds but “If you buy me a strong drink of whiskey, I will tell you the tale of my life, It's long and it's sad but it fits me, And it may bring a tear to your eye”. What unfolds is a railing against certain nefarious doings of the US military and how some higher ups in that institution may be more concerned with making illicit profits for themselves than liberating the world. What really sticks out musically on this song is the string arrangement by US composer and arranger Chris Carmichael. Wonder Stuff violinist Erica Nockalls was so taken with it she contacted Carmichael to find out more about him and the arrangement for this song.

The rest of the record is pretty damned fine too including a country/reggae crossover (no, I didn’t think it was possible either) about Condoleezza Rice and had Francis Ford Coppola had “Warrior' available to him at the time it may well have made an appearance in “Apocalypse Now” (“Take heed for I am weary, ancient, And decrepit now and my time grows short, There are no honorable frays to join”). To complement all the wonderful music contained within, this record is wrapped in a beautiful sleeve with artwork by Tony Fitzpatrick who has been designing sleeves for Steve Earle for almost 30 years making them instantly recognisable. You can check out his art at https://tonyfitzpatrick.co

And finally, thanx Billy, I got there eventually…

The Gringo’s Tale - https://youtu.be/lwgaCm7H1MU