* Country-Rocker Does Bluegrass Proud
---
By Craig Havighurst
* 02/26/99
The Wall Street Journal
(Copyright (c) 1999, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
* Steve Earle and Del McCoury make unlikely compadres, musical or
otherwise. Mr. Earle, 44, a veteran singer/ songwriter from the
* roughneck school of country-rock, has a ragged drawl and a past scarred
by heroin. Mr. McCoury, 60, could pass for an Ozark Mountain preacher
with his fabulous pompadour. His wondrously high, clear voice has
* distinguished him through a 40-year career in bluegrass that included
time in Bill Monroe's band. But by virtue of Mr. McCoury's ear for
great
songs and Mr. Earle's uninhibited enthusiasm for American roots music
of
all varieties, these two began to forge a friendship and a musical
alliance after Mr. McCoury recorded one of Mr. Earle's songs on his
1992
record "Blue Side of Town."
Both live in Nashville, and bridges were built between them by Mr.
McCoury's sons Ronnie, 31, and Rob, 27, who play mandolin and banjo
respectively in the Del McCoury Band. Ronnie would invite Mr. Earle to
sit in at live gigs and try out new songs, and when Mr. Earle recorded
his 1997 "El Corazon," he used the McCoury band to give one of the
tunes
* a bluegrass touch. All this collaboration has culminated in Mr. Earle's
driving, soulful new recording called "The Mountain," on his E-Squared
label. Almost simultaneously, the Del McCoury Band has released "The
* Family," the fourth CD in its current configuration, and a bluegrass
purist's delight.
TD Since 1995, when he completed a rehab program he says saved his
life,
Mr. Earle has been living through a personal and artistic renaissance.
"The Mountain" is the fourth in a string of exceptional records. "I
Feel
* Alright" and "El Corazon" were folk-rock projects that burned with the
same outlaw twang that infused Mr. Earle's best 1980s records,
"Copperhead Road" and his debut, "Guitar Town," but with a lyrical
grace
and depth that sent his stock soaring among critics and fellow
songwriters.
It was 1995's "Train a Comin'," however, that really demonstrated
Mr.
Earle's grasp of the primal American genres: folk, hillbilly and blues.
Because it was an all-acoustic album, executed with the help of some of
* the best instrumentalists from the caverns of real country music, it
offered a depth of texture that electric records can hardly muster.
Norman Blake played guitar. The equally sublime Peter Rowan chopped on
the mandolin. And the late Roy Huskey Jr., to whom "The Mountain" is
dedicated and who Mr. Earle calls "the best doghouse bass player that
ever lived," established the thundering bottom.
How do you get a better band than that? You strike a deal with the
Del McCoury band, who has the edge only in that it's been a unit since
1992 and plays with a drive and tightness that boggles the mind in a
live setting. Besides the father and sons, the group includes
26-year-old Jason Carter on fiddle and Mike Bub, 34, who looks like a
cheerful Irish linebacker, on bass. They wear dashing suits and play
* around one microphone, the way bluegrass was invented, adjusting sound
levels through proximity to the mike. The resulting trade-off of solos
is set to a graceful choreography of men weaving around each other,
keeping the instruments out of each other's way, leaning in close to
sing. It's an apt visual metaphor for the music itself.
After playing with the McCourys one night at Nashville's Station Inn
* ("bluegrass ground zero," he calls it), Mr. Earle made up his mind to
* make a record of all original bluegrass material. A man who takes the
craft of writing extremely seriously, he set a deadline for himself and
knocked out 14 top-notch songs.
The record kicks off with a locomotive of a song about a locomotive
called "Texas Eagle." Bright detail and well-earned nostalgia (the
story
is autobiographical in every detail) breathe new life into the
venerable
train song. And throughout the CD, we hear an insightful blending of
tried-and-true lyrical hooks and traditional melodies with Mr. Earle's
own gift for narrative. "Train a Comin'" contained a visceral, poetic
Civil War song, and so does "The Mountain": "I am Kilran of the 20th
Maine, and we fight for Chamberlain/ Cause he stood right with us when
the Johnnies came like a banshee in the wind."
Also worth noting is "I'm Still in Love With You," a lovely
honky-tonk song that doesn't put Mr. Earle's voice to best use but
nonetheless turns into something brilliant when duet partner Iris
DeMent, one of our most underappreciated singers, joins in.
* The McCoury record hews closer to bluegrass orthodoxy, and it's
interesting to hear the subtle ways in which the band backs off and
opens up on its own music. Mr. Bub's bass, for example, rocks and slaps
like a percussion instrument under Mr. Earle's heavy guitar, while it
bolsters "The Family" with elegant precision. Ronnie McCoury has taken
* top mandolin honors at bluegrass's leading convention five years
running
because he can play hot and modern, driving and old-time, delicate or
hard core, sometimes all in the space of one solo. And when he and his
dad sing together, up in a register many people can't reach in
falsetto,
their voices fit together like pieces of bookmatched spruce on top of a
good guitar.
Mr. McCoury isn't as adventuresome in his song selection here as on
past albums (he's covered Robert Cray and Tom Petty, among others), but
that leaves more room for classics. Bill Monroe's "Get Down on Your
Knees and Pray" showcases four-part gospel harmony. Jimmy Martin's
"She's Left Me Again" displays the McCourys' natural grasp of yearning
blues. And Ronnie turns in another scorching mandolin instrumental with
"Red Eyes on a Mad Dog."
Together, "The Mountain" and "The Family" prove how varied and
* vibrant bluegrass music is these days, some 50 years after the genre
was
invented. And there's more to come. "The Family" is the first release
* from the Ceili Music label, established by country and bluegrass great
Ricky Scaggs, who has signed top-flight acts like Blue Highway, the
Whites and the Gibson Brothers. Add to that Mr. Scaggs's own new
release, "Ancient Tones," and 1999 promises to be an excellent vintage
for the high, lonesome sound.
