Gig review: Steve Earle

Published on Monday 7 December 2009 21:11

ROYAL CONCERT HALL, GLASGOW ***

ON HIS latest "world tour of Scotland", Steve Earle was mostly paying tribute to his fellow Texan troubadour Townes Van Zandt, after whom Earle named his son and with whom he shared a love of storytelling, guitar playing and hard liquor. Unlike Van Zandt, Earle has survived his battle with the latter and is currently promoting his friend's musical legacy with an album of covers.

He was egged on at this gig by an enthusiastic Van Zandt contingent, who whooped whenever they recognised an opening chord or lyric, but for Earle this was about expressing something more pragmatic than just hero worship.

By dispersing his covers – from the renowned Pancho And Lefty to non-album track Rex's Blues – and eloquent memories evenly throughout his two-hour set, Earle gave an organic impression of Van Zandt's encompassing influence on his own work, particularly his seamless mix of the political and the poetical, as well as demonstrating his more brazen appropriation from the song Lungs for his own Copperhead Road.

The direct simplicity of his performance – solo and acoustic with only a mandolin for variety – was engaging enough in itself, but Earle is also known for being erudite company.

On this outing, he dispensed some prison survival advice, a nicely witty deconstruction of the blues and a simple word of warning to "be careful" in these a-changing times to complement his cover of Tom Waits's classic and cautionary Way Down in the Hole.