Jerusalem

Steve Earle is on what must be one of the best winning streaks in popular music of all time. Since getting out of jail on drug charges in the mid 90’s, he’s released 6 brilliant albums in a row, the latest which is Jerusalem.

Hard times demand hard music, and this album doesn’t disappoint. It starts out with a sampled Earle whispering “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” then crashes into the brittle, dark twang of “Ashes to Ashes,” a song which predicts doom for the human race if we fail to get it together. It’s a dramatic start to a dramatic album.

Obviously, this is Earle’s “political record,” and the first few tracks mostly stay on that theme, with “The Best We Can Do,” lambasting the loss of baby boom idealism over hard, Stonesy country rock, and “Amerika 6.0″ raging against the failure of progressive ideals. Yet, as the record goes on, it takes on more personal stories: a Mexican man who was conned into drug-running writes a letter to his fiance from jail against the mariachi-influenced garage rock of “What’s a Simple Man to Do,” and the sinister bluegrassy “The Truth,” which is, again, written from the point of view of a prisoner.

The third “prisoner” song is the already notorious “John Walker’s Blues,” one of Earle’s best songs, a portrait of alienation and extremism puncuated by Arabic choruses, as Earle continues the time-honored American tradition of writing songs from the point of view of society’s most despised individuals.

A few of the songs don’t venture into political territory at all, most notably “I remember you,” a duet with Emmylou Harris. This luminous country-pop song is a true thing of beauty–in a perfect world, this would be a smash hit.

But, Earle writes about an imperfect world, albeit one which still still contains reasons for hope. In the final song, “Jerusalem,” the album’s best tune, Earle writes a defiant prayer for peace in the Middle East, a song which sounds like an alt-county “Imagine” for the new millenium. Long may he run.
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Steve Gill, the know-it-all Nashville DJ who took the controvery regarding one song, John Walker’s Blues, and sent it national, is looking pretty ignorant now. He said that “John Walker” was Earle’s last gasp, through controverial subject matter, at attaining mainstream recognition. He hadn’t heard the rest of the record. And he hasn’t been paying attention to Earle’s carreer for the last 7 years. Steve Earle has plenty of recognition since getting his life turned around in the mid-90’s: movie songwriting credits, video’s on CMT and VH-1, MTV and VH-1 specials, a episode of PBS’s ‘Sessions at West 54th’, Austin City Limits…OH, and three grammy nominations for his own music and one for a Lucinda Williams record he produced. In contrast, the first time most music fans heard of Steve GILL was after he spouted off about John Walker’s Blues. WHO is looking for recognition?

If Jerusalem was an effort by Earle at mainstream popularity, he must have known it wouldn’t work because he doesn’t sound like he’s trying to be too popular. He says that this is a “political record”. It doesn’t sound too political to me. The songs are thought provoking without being “preachy”. He criticizes liberals for not being liberal enough, he criticizes conservatives for being too conservative. It’s Steve Earle. Here he seems to say the same thing that that his previous political songs said. “I’m not telling you what to think, I’m just telling you to THINK!!!” Perhaps I am wrong, but, hey. I’m thinking.

That’s what these songs will do. They will make you think. You may agree, you may not, but the whole way through you will be tapping your feet or strumming your steering wheel because Jerusalem is a pleasure to listen to. From straight up rock and roll to Texas Tornado’s style Tex-a-billy right on through to the most hopeful song my (30’s) generation has had the pleasure of hearing, the title track. It takes John Lennon’s generalized peace anthem “Imagine” and puts that hope at specific spot on the globe…Jerusalem.
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