Music Bloodline

Steve Earle

The hardcore troubadour: social activist and country rocker supreme.

Biography

Upon the release of his classic 1986 debut album, Guitar Town, Steve Earle was grouped into the new traditionalist movement begun by Dwight Yoakam and Randy Travis, but he also gained the attention of rock critics and fans who saw similarities between his populist sentiments and the heartland rock of Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp. Toward the early '90s, his career was thrown off track, but in the mid-'90s, he re-emerged stronger and healthier, producing two of his most critically acclaimed albums ever: Train a Comin' and I Feel Alright. He had returned from the brink and re-established himself as a vital artist. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine