I've listened to/watched this interview because I picked up a book in my local library called 'I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive'. When I first looked at this book I said to myself, wow this was written by Steve Earle. I don't know much about Steve Earle and I certainly didn't know that he'd written a book, a novel. I got reading this book and I was amazed. I thought, this guy knows about people, about their depths, about a whole culture that I know so little about and he tells it straight. Then there is how he writes. A literary artist who is concise and has held my attention all the time, every page, hanging onto what's unfolding and what's going to happen next. The story is like nothing else I've read, because I don't know much about American people who are very poor, about the reality of taking hard drugs, about people who are discriminated against for whatever reason, about mysterious spirituality and because I don't know much about Hank Williams, who's ghost is one of the characters in this story. The story is set in the south of San Antonio 1963, so a very different era to now. It's the characters and the feel of the story that I find so compelling, along with the depth of understanding that Steve Earl has, about what he is writing about. I only know two of Steve Earls songs 'Copperhead Road' and 'Fort Worth Blues'. I heard 'Copperhead Road' when it was a hit on the radio here and 'Fort Worth Blues' when I watched a tribute concert on RU-vid, for Townes Van Zandt. On this tribute all the songs performed were great and performed by great artists. All the songs were Townes Van Zandt songs apart from 'Fort Worth Blues' which is Steve Earls own song about Townes Van Zandt and something of the nature of Steve's relationship to Townes. Watching this interview I have come to understand that Steve Earl is a prolific creative artist, working in multiple mediums, who draws from his own amazing life and tells it how it is.
Man, if Steve is doing a Jerry Jeff record, contact me. I have an extremely obscure record with Jerry Jeff and my dad from 1977. Was done at Sugar Hill Studios.
"I'm from Schertz, Texas. That's S C H E R T Z and I used to get beat up by great big square-headed cowboys named Otto on a fairly regular basis" haha, I just remember that from one of his albums
I attended OG Weiterstien Jr High School don't ask me how the fuck you spell that.... Man I had that story downloaded on a disc years ago lost it and have been trying in vain to find it again.... Can you help me out on that???
Wish he would do his own stuff instead of lots of cover albums is it 5 so far i think. Always interesting interviews with earle, , better than hearing him do cabaret..
