Steve Earle & The Dukes (photo: Blake Morneau)
By Blake Morneau
Steve Earle has been making music a sneakily long time. The hard-lived veteran recently treated a captive Victoria audience to an intimate display of his experiences in both music and life. In the midst of a suite of songs that included “My Old Friend the Blues” and “Someday” from his 1986 debut, Guitar Town, Steve Earle commented, “It’s frightening how old some of these songs are, but I guess that’s what happens when you don’t die.”
Earle started the night seemingly a bit tentative, opening with the title track from his stellar new album, The Low Highway. As the setlist dug deeper into his vast catalogue, Earle became noticeably more comfortable. Every time I hear “Taneytown” I’m astonished at the weight of the song. On a record, the chords and the lyrics combine for a special sort of heaviness that tugs at the heart, but when Earle gets to it live, slurring and bleeding words together, it tugs at the soul. By the time he hit the heartbreaking “I Thought You Should Know,” Earle had found his groove.
As his comfort level grew, so did his always winning stage banter. Chatty as ever, Earle talked about his latest separation and poked fun at his hard-earned and impressive sobriety (he’s been sober since I was 11!). He told a beautiful story about being neighbours and friends with the late, great Levon Helm and the pain he feels every time he turns down his street, renamed for the legendary musician and producer.
With the crowd’s attention naturally centering on Earle, he repeatedly and deservedly tried to shift the focus to the current incarnation of his longtime touring band, The Dukes, which included old cohorts in bass player Kelley Looney (a Duke since Copperhead Road in 1988), drummer Will Rigby (a Duke since 1999) and recent additions, the marital duo of The Mastersons (who also took on opening duties), with Eleanor Whitmore filling Lucinda Williams’ gargantuan shoes on “You’re Still Standing There.” Old blood for comfort and new blood to keep fresh, The Dukes remain a reflection of Earle’s musical career.
In his nearly 30 years of touring and recording music, Earle has established a unique place for himself as not only a protector and preserver of some of the great American musical traditions (bluegrass, country, folk and jazz, all intermingle inside of Earle’s rock), but as one of the few people able to imbue those traditional forms with an outlook and a spirit uniquely his own.
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