STEVE EARLE doesn’t do anything here he hasn’t done before, aside from add the ‘Duchesses’ to his band’s title. What you get is the usual mix of growling vocals, gentle country with a spiky message, and workmanlike rock-outs, such as Calico Country, actually one of the least successful songs.
Still, the opening title track is a husky delight, as too is Burnin’ It Down (in which a supermarket chain smells the smoke). There are also three songs written for the David Simon TV series Treme, Love’s Gonna Blow My Way, the delightful After Mardi Gras – both co-written with Lucia Micarelli, Earle’s co-star in the series – and That All You Got?
On 21st Century Blues, Earle rasps out another angry hymn, while the closing Remember Me is an enchanting hoarse whisperer of a song. The production on Earle’s 15th album is by the man himself and Ray Kennedy (whose Twanghurst partnership produced Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels On A Gravel Road).
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