Steve Earle – Guitar Town (1986)

A true American rebel, or hero if you like.  Earle has successfully combined ‘Rock’, ‘Country’ and ‘BlueGrass’ musict to create a wonderfulblend of exciting yet truly original Americana.  Self-taught on guitar, Earle started off trying to get his songs recorded by other country artists.  This debut is sparkling, almost every song still sounds fresh 38 years later.  Hard to choose favourites as every song is great, but I particularly love ‘My Old Friend, The Blues’, ‘Little Rock’n’Roller’ (a song to his child) and ‘Someday’ (about the desolation of life in bis home town and dreams of leaving).  Steve was always a rebel and even spent time in prison, was married 7 times (twice to the same woman) and has never cared what his record company or even his fans wanted; recording a complete Bluegrass album, and an album of songs by his hero Townes Van Zeldt.  My kind of man I think.