Music: Steve Earle at Fairfield Halls, Croydon (From Wimbledon Guardian)

Music: Steve Earle at Fairfield Halls, Croydon

8:30am Saturday 24th October 2009

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The dusty highway of country music is littered with the bones of promising writers and musicians who spent far too long on the wrong side of the tracks and once upon-a-time Steve Earle seemed destined to self-destruct and join them.

Having worked so hard to build a reputation as a songwriter with country rock albums like Guitar Town and Copperhead Road, which included the barnstorming single Johnny Come Lately, recorded in London using The Pogues as his backing band, Earle hit rock bottom in 1990 when his record label MCA dropped him for his increasing drug habit.

He disappeared from the music business for a four-year “vacation in the ghetto” during which time he also spent a short term in prison.

This may have effectively saved his life and thankfully for Earle and the large number of fans of his hard-hitting, confessional style of writing, he stepped away from the edge and pulled his personal and professional life back on track.

At the age of 19 he made the career move to Nashville, playing in various bands and taking odd jobs to pay the bills.

He played bass and sang backing vocals on a Guy Clark album in 1975 and earned a publishing deal where one of his early songs, Mustang Wine, was due to be recorded by Elvis Presley, but the legendary singer missed the scheduled session and Carl Perkins eventually cut the song instead.

It was the start of a successful writing career, which has seen his story-based songs covered by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Shawn Colvin and Emmylou Harris amongst many others.

In 1986, the Guitar Town album saw him at the forefront of the New Country movement, yet Earle has never relied on just one style of music, delving into rockabilly, bluegrass and rock on different albums over the years.

Often Grammy-nominated, he finally received the accolade for his 2004 album The Revolution Starts… Now, and again in 2007 for Washington Square Serenade.

His latest project is Townes, an album of 15 songs written by his friend and mentor, the late singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt.

As a teenager, Steve Earle met Van Zandt at a gig in Houston, Texas and was inspired to take up music as a career, later saying: “He was a real good teacher and a real bad role model.”

Featuring classic songs such as Pancho and Lefty and White Freightliner Blues the album is something of a family affair, with Earle joined by his wife, Alison Moorer and his son Justin Townes Earle.

Steve Earle, Fairfield Halls, Park Lane, October 31, 8pm, £24.50. Call 020 8688 9291 or visit fairfield.co.uk.

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