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Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade |
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06 November 2007 |
 Tributes to locales are nothing new - from album titles like Lou Reed’s New York and Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise (which is, actually, only about Illinois because he told us it was and the song titles said so) to even band names like - hyuk hyuk - Black Oak Arkansas. What often gets lost in such projects is any attempt to bring a world-view into the mix. While the point may often be to create an affect of being “on the outside looking in”, such a goal doesn’t exactly lend itself to timelessness (tell the truth, when was the last time you listened to Lou Reed’s tome, or Sonic Youth’s NYC Ghosts And Stories?).
Happily, Washington Square Serenade doesn’t fall prey to this.
The fact that Steve Earle’s songwriting is one of the highest standards out there goes a long way here, but there’s more to it than that. In his love letter to NYC (and, at least to some degree, to his wife Allison Moorer), Earle instead opts to roll in more worldly tales - “Steve’s Hammer (For Pete)” could be an anthem for any factory town, we all at least know someone who’s sung the “Oxycontin Blues” themselves, and marvel at those who “Sparkle And Shine” and stole our heart in the process.
In fact, if it wasn’t for the likes of the outstanding “Down Here Below” or “City Of Immigrants”, we might wonder if this set’s about NYC at all. To Earle’s credit, there’s an appreciation on Washington Square Serenade for bringing his audience into the picture. Indeed, when Earle sings about Pell Mell in “Down Here Below”, it isn’t hard to picture this winged wonder circling Central Park. He even invites fans who are lifers on the journey by explicitly stating “goodbye guitar town” in the travelogue “Tennessee Blues”.
Washington Square Serenade is something of an urban country record, which could easily be restated as a rural rock record perhaps. Less electric than his last few records, Earle stretches out on everything from his trusty guitar to mandolin, banjo, bozouki, and so on - and does it all with what could be the finest collection of musicians he’s worked with outside of the most recent Dukes incarnation. Credit also has to go to producer John King, who gets just the right sound on the desperate “Satellite Radio” and to the closing Tom Waits cover “Way Down In The Hole”.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Washington Square Serenade could very well end up being the best release of 2007 (which is saying something since this year surpassed the quality of 2006 about 7 months ago), and stands mighty tall in Earle’s catalogue.
Definitely a trip worth taking, over and over.
9.0 |
