Categories : Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
 |
Rating: 3/5 Released: September 25, 2007 Reviewer: David Coats |
In the liner notes for his twelfth studio record, country legend Steve Earle expresses his wonderment upon moving from Nashville to New York City. If Washington Square Serenade is any indication, Earle has been able to sharpen this sense of wonder while retaining his sense of purpose.
Earle’s populist songs are his best. He may not live in the country anymore, but he has identified class conflict as the common thread between urban and rural living, examined in ‘Jericho Road,’ ‘Oxycontin Blues’ and ‘Steve’s Hammer’ (three of the record’s most traditional blues-folk songs), while in ‘Down Here Below,’ Earle writes of a having a “penthouse view from the tip-top of the food chain.â€
He recognizes that New York City’s history of struggle and resiliency goes back much further than 9/11; this is the spirit of New York lingering from the Flour Riots of 1837. Sings Earle: “Livin’ in a city where the dreams of men / Reach up to touch the sky and then / Tumble back down to earth again / Livin’ in a city that never quits.†However, Earle’s more personal songs, such as the love songs ‘Days Aren’t Long Enough’ and ‘Come Home to Me,’ though classy, will be instantly forgotten.
The song-writing is efficient and the musicianship modest and clean, and at times almost childishly exuberant, executed most successfully through the percussion and bamboo flute of lead single ‘City Of Immigrants.’ However, the unlikely pairing of Earle and producer John King (Dust Brothers) proves hit-and-miss. Earle’s folk doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it‘s a reliable platform for his storytelling. King’s electronic undercurrents lend urgency to songs like ‘Satellite Radio,’ but sounds dreadful alongside the overt blues lyrics of Tom Waits’ ‘Way Down in the Hole.’
A deceptively rich record, Washington Square Serenade isn’t Earle’s finest work, but contains enough impacting material to be a worthy addition to his catalogue.
