Steve Earle - Fearless Heart, Outlaw Poet

David McGee.

Fearless Heart, Outlaw Poet examines the life and music of Steve Earle, one of the most important singer-songwriters of our time. Through in-depth interviews with family members, producers and other musicians who have recorded with Steve, and with Steve himself,  this second volume in Backbeat's Lives in Music series traces a journey that began in southeast Texas, took the artist to Number One on the Country album chart with his acclaimed and influential debut album, Guitar Town, then found him nearly losing everything in the depths of drug addiction until he chose to live. With that decision, he mounted one of the most remarkable comebacks of any artist in recent memory, ending four years of silence with a pared down, acoustic gem of an album, Train a-Comin', followed by a succession of challenging projects done in collaboration with his co-producer Ray Kennedy.

Along the way we see the growth of Steve's political consciousness and are witness to the courage he shows in tackling controversial issues in song (including a full account of the furor that erupted over "John Walker's Blues," his attempt to understand the motives of John Walker Lindh, the young American who was captured while fighting with opposition forces in Afghanistan), his long-standing opposition to and campaign against the death penalty, up to his most recent appearance in support of Cindy Sheehan's protest outside the Texas ranch of President George W. Bush.

The narrative takes interesting side trips as well in examining the east Texas singer-songwriter scene of the early '70s that was Steve's training ground, where he met and befriended both Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, who became mentors to him, as well as the rise of the New Traditionalist and Americana movements in country music. Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Peter Rowan and Norman Blake are a few of the artists who offer their insights into Steve's music, and Ronnie McCoury offers the first inside account ever published of the sessions with Steve and the Del McCoury Band that produced the bluegrass monument, The Mountain, as well as an explanation of the band's subsequent dispute with Steve that led the McCoury Band to withdraw from a tour in support of the album. "Fearless Heart, Outlaw Poet" is a wild ride that embraces history both political and musical as it attempts a flesh-and-blood portrait of an artist still busy being born.

( - 30 - )

Steve Earle—Restless Heart, Outlaw Poet by David McGee will be published by Backbeat Books in December 2005.