Steve Earle is not exactly shy. The singer-songwriter, who now makes his home in New York, wears his politics openly in a way most other musicians are afraid to do.
On Thursday, at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, a night that one might have expected him to put the political discourse aside, when he was focusing most of his energy on his new 15-song tribute to close friend and mentor Townes Van Zandt, Earle still found time to state rather plainly what he thinks about the state of the nation.
He is hopeful, he says, about an Obama administration, but expects to be disappointed. He admitted to being to Obama’s left and said it was up to us — the people — to keep the government honest.
And he played some amazing music. For nearly two hours, he talked about Van Zandt and played his music — managing to avoid the kind of romantic memorializing that would have been a disservice to Van Zandt. He made no bones about Van Zandt’s alcoholism and his inability, ultimately, to live up to his talent or reputation, also acknowledging his own addictions and the impact they’ve had.
Plus, Earle offered a handful of his own songs — “City of Immigrants,” “Jerusalem,” “Copperhead Road” — finger-picking his way through the entire night. What was striking — and confirmed for me when I finally watched Earle’s appearance on Tavis Smiley’s show on my DVR over the weekend — was how the songs sounded of a piece, how the Townes Van Zandt material and Earle’s songs fit so well together, as if they could have been written by the same person.
Part of the reason is, as Earle told Smiley, their guitar style is similar. I’d go farther, though, and say that Van Zandt and Earle shared a sensibility that was apparent last week and is apparent on Townes.
Hank Kalet 