Steve Earle Announces Bluesy New Album, Talks Truth in Lyrics
It’s also a showcase for the Dukes, an alt-country supergroup whose members include Kelley Looney — Earle’s bassist since the Copperhead Road days — and husband-and-wife duo the Mastersons, who handle lead guitar and fiddle. Together, Earle and company have been knocking out several recordings a day, often learning the tunes an hour or so before tracking them live.
“This is the best band I’ve ever had,” Earle insists, “and that’s part of the reason for me wanting to make a blues record. Chris Masterson cut his teeth on this stuff in Texas. He started out playing blues guitar, almost exclusively. He’s really good at it.”
Case in point: “You’re the Best Lover That I Ever Had,” which makes its official debut at Rolling Stone Country below. Punctuated by Chris Masterson’s slide guitar, the song swoons and swaggers with sloppy confidence, like a 21st-century version of “Smokestack Lighting” or “Polk Salad Annie.” It’s not perfect — nothing on Terraplane is — but that makes it more believable.
The new album is due out February 17th, and Earle plans on spending the intervening months “at home, working on my book and hanging out with my little boy.” There’s a cross-country promotional tour planned for spring 2015, including stops at the Stagecoach Festival and South by Southwest. If all goes according to plan, Earle will return to the recording studio later that year, too, this time to record an album with tour mate Shawn Colvin. It’s shaping up to be a busy year.
For now, though, he’s focused on nothing but the blues.
“Let’s go get another,” he says on his way back to the tracking room, ready to knock out one more gritty, grizzled tune — one with all the weird shit in all the right places — before the night’s end.
Terraplane Track Listing:
1. Baby Baby Baby (Baby)
2. You’re the Best Lover That I Ever Had
3. The Tennessee Kid
4. Ain’t Nobody’s Daddy Now
5. Better Off Alone
6. The Usual Time
7. Go Go Boots Are Back
8. Acquainted With the Wind
9. Baby’s Just as Mean as Me
10. Gamblin’ Blues
11. King of the Blues