Steve Earle
Transcendental Blues
[E Squared/Artemis]
Rating: 8.1
I could begin this review by invoking one or two of the more renowned
transcendentalists of the 19th century. You know how it would it go: "In
Walden, his masterpiece of transcendent ideology, Henry David Thoreau
wrote, 'I went to the woods because I wished--" I don't even need to finish
the sentence, do I? Quoting from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Nature might be
more tactful, but barely. His lecture, The Transcendentalist, is a more
obvious, if less-cited source, but the quotes are all too vague.
Invoking these writers would be too easy, too obvious, and certainly too
academic, not to mention slightly inaccurate: "transcendentalism" was a
spiritual movement; Steve Earle simply has "transcendental blues," which is
quite different. Therefore, I'm not going to start my review in such a way.
Now, I could pull out Webster and define "transcendental" for you, but
that wouldn't suffice because the definition, by its very nature, precludes a
definitive definition. Earle, likewise, struggles with the idea of
transcendence in his liner notes. He humorously contests one definition--
"the act of going through something"-- by writing, "Ouch. I see plate glass
windows and divorces." Finally, he arrives at the conclusion that
"transcendence is about being still enough long enough to know when it's time
to move on."
But I don't want to start with liner notes, either.
So maybe I should tell a personal story of dubious relevance, as is my wont.
There's the time I awoke at midnight at 11,000 feet on Mt Rainier. The full,
blue moon ignited the top layer of the endless cloud a few hundred feet below
us-- a sight I've never seen outside of an airplane. Or maybe I could tell
the story about when I hallucinated atop a cemetery hill. I walked in a tight
circle for almost an hour because, as I explained later, "I needed to reassure
myself of my physical presence in the world."
But that's my literary crutch, so I musn't indulge. Which leaves me with a
final instance of transcendence: the album itself. The title track opens the
record with a harmonium that's quickly interrupted by-- yes-- a bleep. But
after some soft thumping reminiscent of Yo La Tengo's latest, the song
progresses into the exemplary roots-rock that one expects from Earle, replete
with lines like, "Happy ever after 'til the day you die/ Careful what you ask
for, you don't know 'til you try."
Maybe because he doesn't want to surprise the listener, Earle waits a bit
before displaying his expanded sound. The next two tracks continue in a
similar roots-rock vein, although each is decidedly unique. Then, in a single
stroke of apparent ease, Earle delivers "I Can Wait," a dead-on excursion into
the reflective, laid-back country groove the Jayhawks have made a career of.
Earle finally breaks out with the Cash-ian ballad "The Boy Who Never Cried."
As Earle's unaccompanied voice establishes the story of the boy, a harmonium
again rises up, soon joined by a unobtrusive 12-string. But as the song builds,
Earle slowly infuses it with perfectly placed, emotive orchestral hooks. Then,
all is stripped down as he delivers the clincher in a strained, Dylan-esque
fashion: the boy lived alone until death, at which point, "He shed a single
tear for a boy who never cried."
After a couple of Irish jigs (of sorts), the pace slows down again for
"Lonelier Than This," which, in its subtle power, is on par with early
Springsteen. Likewise for "Halo 'Round the Moon," a song that checks in after
a few more top-shelf roots-rockers. "Until the Day I Die" is another valiant
attempt at creating a bluegrass classic worthy of Mr. Monroe (one of Earle's
professed goals). After "All of My Life," an invigorating italicized rock
song, the album is rounded out by "Over Yonder (Jonathan's Song)," a plaintive,
mandola-sprinkled epitaph of sorts with a fitting, regretful conclusion:
"Shinin' down on all of them that hate me/ I hope goin' brings 'em peace."
Earle's music doesn't simply mirror the transcendence of its creator; it
lends transcendence to the listener as well, as all excellent music will.
But what truly makes this one of Earle's best records is that he refuses to
be pulled down by musical decisions. It's as if he never faced a problem of
whether or not to add this or that instrument, or to veer off in this or that
direction. He simply had the idea and went with it. This is one manifestation
of transcendent thought: there's no such thing as indecision because an idea
necessarily ignites action.
-Ryan Kearney