On the evenings of March 12 and 13, Steve Earle brought Country to the Blue Note with 4 long sets that left the sold out crowds shouting for more. Earle is a storyteller at heart, and his comments to the audience during the first set of Tuesday's show offerred plenty of insight into the man. Earle's wife Allison Moorer opened every set with some music from her latest album, "Getting Somewhere," and joined her husband for the Pete Seeger anthem "Where Have All The Flowers Gone." Her version of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" led many to scramble up to the gift shop to buy her latest CD. By the time Earle got on stage, his comfort level was obvious, seeing as this was one of the only gigs in recent memory that he could literally "walk to work," since he and Allison reside in Greenwich Village when they are not on tour. Below is a set list with Earle's comments in between songs:
SET LIST - with EARLE'S COMMENTS....
TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1st Set
Steve Earle at the Blue Note1) “One of These Days I’m Gonna Lay This Hammer Down…”
2) “Guitar Town”
“I grew up in Schertz, Texas and attended OG Nederstein Junior High school and I lived on Kirche St., K-I-R-C-H-E - Kirche Street. The original white settlers in this particular part of south Texas were probably of German descent. I know this for a fact because I used to get the shit kicked out of me on a fairly regular basis by great big huge cowboys called “Otto.” They were all called Otto. Otto Bob, Otto Sue…..I didn’t know you could get from Texas to Tennessee any other way but to hitchhike until I was 27 years old, and in my first two years in Nashville, if I wanted to go home for Christmas or something I had to hitchhike my butt back home. First time I attempted that, I was pretty good and I got a ride all the way from Jackson Tennessee all the way to Texas and they dropped me off at Interstate 35 at the Schertz, Texas exit. Now, my parents no longer lived in Schertz, Texas by that time, we were renters and we moved around a lot. But, one time they moved and didn’t tell me…it was like…not on purpose or anything, I just didn’t go home enough. I went home, knocked on the door and this guy came to the door I didn’t know, a great big square-headed cowboy named Otto. I mean it was my mistake, I saw this Schertz Texas exit and I thought, well I’ll go in and check out my old stomping grounds, which turned out to be a huge mistake because it was a transient community right outside the gates of Randolph Air Force Base and yes, I grew up dating those cold-blooded little military girls that would leave you in eighteen months and just flat didn’t care and it fucked me up……or at least that’s the excuse I’ve been operating on. Very quickly, nobody in Schertz, Texas remembered me except the police….they were in the Christmas spirit, however, they gave me a place to stay….no turkey or dressing or nothing. And after extracting a small ransom from my father, I did make it home in time for Christmas dinner. (Cheers) And I did get this song out of the deal. But…I don’t think it was worth it! (More Cheers…) But for whatever it’s worth, this is the Hometown Blues with apologies to Thomas Wolfe and Doc Watson…..”
3) “Hometown Blues”
4) “My Old Friend the Blues”
5) “Someday”
“As always, this next song goes out to what’s her name, wherever she is….”
6) “Now She’s Gone”
“Same girl, different harmonica”
7) “Can’t Remember If We Said Goodbye”
8) “The Mountain”
“This is the part of the show where I sing songs about war”
9) “Dixieland”
10) “Rich Man’s War”
Allison Moorer joined husband Earle on stage to sing a Pete Seeger song called “Where Have All The Flowers Gone.” Both gazed at one another throughout the duration of the song, and throughout it seemed as though they were singing to each other, not to the audience, which was an endearing moment for all who witnessed it. Before the song started, Allison tried to fix his hair, and when Earle stopped laughing he began to tell the crowd a story referring to the HBO series he is on called “The Wire”:
“I’m on this TV show and I can’t cut my hair until August so this is gonna get really bad. She went outta town for about a week and when she came back I was in my little recording rig in the corner, and I was literally in my pinstripe Yankee bathrobe sitting at my computer (crowd cheers at the Yankee reference)….and it was just…way too Brian Wilson, she couldn’t handle it….(crowd laughs)…and now that I think about it, it scared the shit outta me! Anyway, Allison and I have been singin’ this song lately. This is a Pete Seeger song. We’re singing it because Pete Seeger songs should be sung, and this particular one, it works during wars, and it should be sung between wars to prevent the next one from coming, and it can help, I really believe that. We did notice that for the first time, our daughters are being sent and they are fighting and they are dying, and we discovered that in their honor, it helped us out to leave one verse out, since it’s no longer necessary. In their honor, we leave it out, and I hope it doesn’t piss Pete off. It’s not good to piss Pete off. There’s nothing worse than having a pacifist pissed off at you than almost anybody else. If a pacifist is pissed off at you, you really feel like you screwed up.”
Allison Moorer opening for Steve Earle on the Blue Note stage11) “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” (by Pete Seeger)
After the song, Earle and Moorer kissed and the crowd cheered like crazy.
12) “South Nashville Blues”
13) CCNKMP “Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain”
“I love livin’ around here ‘cause I can walk around and the Gaslight and the Kettle of Fish were right around the corner. Dylan lived over there across Sixth Avenue when he finally started livin’ somewhere and…if you go back even further than that, ’Ten Days That Shook The World’ was written two blocks from here next to my favorite Thai restaurant. You can just walk around this neighborhood forever and you’ll find stuff like that all day long. We’re gonna be start makin’ a record in New York City in a couple of weeks, and we’ll see ya’ll out there!”
14) “Copperhead Road”
End of show
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