Just an American Boy is a double-album soundtrack of Amos Poe's DVD documentary of Steve Earle touring in the United States and Canada in late...... more
Just an American Boy is a double-album soundtrack of Amos Poe's DVD documentary of
Steve Earle touring in the United States and Canada in late 2002 and early 2003; most of the tracks were taken from two performances--in Toronto and in Bloomington, Indiana.
Earle has not always had a straightforward relationship with his audiences--standing up in front of southern country crowds and proselytising against the death penalty isn'
t the easiest way to sell
T-
shirts--but it must have been doubly strange for a man of
Earle's generally liberal sensibilities to be on the road after September 11, 2001. There weren'
t many people who wanted to hear a vaguely sympathetic song about Marin County Mujahid John Walker Lindh, but
Earle wrote one and sang it (the title of this set is the opening line of "John Walker's Blues"). Just an American Boy includes many
Steve Earle standards (among them "Copperhead Road", "Guitar Man" and a terrific "Christmas in Washington"), a rousing version of Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love & Understanding" and several of
Earle's lengthy between-song digressions on subjects ranging from capital punishment to trade unions. (The latter are much less of a trial than speeches by rock stars tend to be.)
Earle's monologues are as neatly constructed as his songs, and there's more than a hint of his fellow Texan, the great Bill Hicks, in his accent and bleak wit. --Andrew Mueller
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