Steve Earle & The Dukes (And Duchesses)
Album: The Low Highway
Label: New West
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.steveearle.com

There are three quotes from Steve Earle's self-penned sleeve notes to his fifteenth studio album "The Low Highway" that define it better than I probably will during the course of this review, but keep reading :-)

"I've been on every interstate highway in the lower forty-eight states by now and I never get tired of the view." "God I Love This. And God help me if I ever forget to count my blessings when In walk out on a different stage in a different town night after night to find an audience out there, people who paid hard earned money to sing MY song!"

And for me the most telling, "My Hitchhiking days are long behind me now. I'm an upscale gypsy, flying first class or rolling down the highway in a three-quarter of a million dollar bus but there are still nights when I can't sleep and mornings when I'm up at first light riding shotgun, watching the miles slip beneath vulcanised wheels."

I don't think it's a coincidence that this is the first time Steve Earle has used The Dukes epitaph to his name since 1987's "Exit 0" you can feel a sense of a combination of nostalgic yearning mixed with a reflective knowledge that time catches up in pretty much every chord and riff. The thing I really love about this is that Earle does that whilst maintaining a sense of poetic reflectiveness that connects with that past and acknowledges that it wasn't all rose coloured and that honesty is what makes this such a great album.

I also think adding (And Duchesses) in brackets is also a telling statement, one that acknowledges other influences on his life and music, sisters, partners, fellow musicians.

It will come as absolutely no surprise that this is an album rich in people and places. It's also an album rich in style, drawing in the likes of Cajun, mountain music, Americana and rock. It's a proper road album, you get the feeling that some of the songs are about burning up the miles, whilst others are spent in the bus lounge sharing story songs with fellow musicians. It also shows you can be proud of your country whilst recognising its flaws or becoming a nationalistic bigot.

I'd go as far as saying this is Steve Earle's best album in years. Whilst he's never really lost his mojo, he's found a bucket sized booster pack for it. This is a turbo charged album, no mistake!!

As a couple of additional notes, the album will also be available as 180g vinyl and CD/DVD double pack, but more important he's touring over here in May/June, check his website for details.

Neil King