Steve Earle 14/9/09

I have seen Steve Earle a number of times and he is always, always good. This was a solo acoustic show and was Townes-Van-Zandt themed following the album of Van Zandt songs that Steve had recently released. It also included a range of Steve Earle's best songs so it couldn't really miss. In fact it was a masterclass in singing and acoustic guitar playing building on superb songwriting.

The support was Joe Pug a young singer songwriter who had obviously spent some time listening to Bob Dylan but he was pleasant enough

Steve started with a couple of run-of- the-mill Van Zandt songs before hitting us with "Pancho and Lefty". This is one of the best songs ever. Enough said.

The early part of the show featured a number of Van Zandt songs including the bluesy "Brand New Companion" and "Colorado Girl". He also did "Mr Mudd and Mr Gold".

Throughout the gig Steve in his inimitable and eloquent way weaved a narrative around his relationship to Townes Van Zandt including being roundly heckled by his hero at a very early stage in his career. He inevitably strayed into politics including advising everyone "not to throw the baby out with the bathwater" at our next UK election and warning Barack Obama to make sure he got out of Iraq as he had promised to do. He is never shy about voicing his opinions and they are always enjoyable.

He always seems to play "Goodbye" which is just about my favourite Steve Earle song and to hear it in an acoustic gig was a treat. I realise why it has a special place for him as he told us that it was the first song that he wrote after going straight. He also gave us another heartfelt tune of his - "Jerusalem". Another song of his that was perfect for the solo acoustic format was "My Old Friend the Blues" which came across with real feeling. Near the end there was a beautiful rendition of "Fort Worth Blues".

To start the encore Steve played maybe the only song not written by him or Townes and something that I was hoping he would play but not expecting he would - the theme song from "The Wire". He followed that with "Copperhead Road".

A great way to finish and I can't wait for the next edition of this gig when we see him in November.