THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “October before last I woke up without a band,” says Steve Earle. “I had toured with one version of The Dukes or another since 1982, but the real continuous bloodline of the outfit died with my longtime bass player, Kelly Looney, in 2019. So, it seemed I’d come to a crossroads. Left? Right? I chose BACK. Back to performing solo like I did in coffeehouses when I first started.”
Steve Earle is one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of his generation. A protege of legendary songwriters Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, he quickly became a master storyteller in his own right, with his songs being recorded by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, The Pretenders and countless others. 1986 saw the release of his record Guitar Town, which shot to number one on the country charts and is now regarded as a classic of the Americana genre.
Most recently, Earle’s 1988 hit Copperhead Road was made an official state song of Tennessee in 2023. Subsequent releases like The Revolution Starts…Now (2004), Washington Square Serenade (2007), and Townes (2009) received consecutive Grammy Awards. His most recent album, Jerry Jeff (2022) consisted of Earle’s versions of songs written by Jerry Jeff Walker, one of his mentors.
Earle has published both a novel I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive (2011) and Dog House Roses, a collection of short stories (2003). He has produced albums for other artists such as Joan Baez (Day After Tomorrow) and Lucinda Williams (Car Wheels On A Gravel Road).
As an actor, Earle has appeared in several films and had recurring roles in The Wire and Tremé. In 2017, he appeared in the off-Broadway play Samara, for which he also wrote a score. Earle wrote music for and appeared in Coal Country, for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Earle is the host of the weekly show Hard Core Troubadour on Sirius Radio’s Outlaw Country channel. In 2020, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. And in 2023, Steve was honored by the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music.”
