Steve Earle: I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (MIA)
When it comes to American roots music, you don’t get two names much bigger than Steve Earle and T Bone Burnett. Earle is a veteran country artist of 14 solo studio albums who spent his formative years hanging out with legendary Texan country-folk artist Townes van Zandt. Burnett has played guitar for Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Elvis Costello and has produced everybody from BB King to Willie Nelson and Robert Plant.
On I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (MIA), the two come together for a rootsy hoedown. Taking its name from Hank Williams’s last single, this new album is poignant for Earle in his 56th year, considering that he chooses to deal with the big subjects, such as life, death and God.
Burnett’s production is perfect, allowing Earle the space to let the songs breathe. Meet Me in the Alleyway has a Tom Waits feel, and God is God is as gorgeous a song as anything Earle has recorded for a while. It is a stellar collection of songs from one of America’s finest songwriters.