Steve Earle
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Steve Earle has blazed his own trail through the music industry, with a resumé that includes hits like “Guitar Town” and “Copperhead Road” and the Grammy-winning albums The Revolution Starts Now and Washington Square Serenade. Tonight’s performance, however, is dedicated less to his own songs than to the work of his mentor Townes Van Zandt. The singer/songwriters first encountered each other at a party for Jerry Jeff Walker in 1972, formally meeting in Houston when the elder artist heckled the younger at the latter’s club date. “Finally,” Earle recalled for NPR, “I played this song called ‘Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold’ that Townes wrote, which has about a bazillion words – and he shut up.” The pair remained close friends until Van Zandt’s 1997 passing. Now Earle pays tribute to his guiding light with Townes, an album of covers, and a show dedicated to it, with the occasional Earle gem mixed in.
