Steve Earle: The Hard Way : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On "The Other Kind," the first track on The Hard Way, Steve Earle sings about "not suffering from a lack of love/There's plenty more where that came from." Meanwhile, on "Close Your Eyes," which ends the album, Earle observes that there are "Thousands of people searchin' out there/Most of 'em lookin' for love.... In time we'll all get our share." Whether Earle really believes this is another question, because in between these songs he paints portraits of desperate characters whose capacity to love or be loved is dicey at best.

As on 1988's stirring Copperhead Road, Earle is involved in politics and history. But the epic feel of that album is narrowed here to a personal look at a solitary man's travails in an America where the qualities of mercy and justice are strained indeed. While there's no single song to match the historical sweep of Road's "Johnny Come Lately," several tunes gel in impressive fashion. "Regular Guy" finds the band rollicking à la the Pogues, as Earle offers the straight dope on a fellow whose paycheck barely keeps things afloat at home, a symptom of a system in which "one man's promise is another man's lie." "Promise You Anything" wraps chiming guitars and propulsive rhythm around a sentiment that is the closest Earle comes to a commitment. The Nebraska-like spareness of "Billy Austin" adds stark ambience to a tale of a half-breed Cherokee who robs, kills by accident and winds up on death row.

"Billy Austin" is typical of Earle's approach on The Hard Way: He doesn't so much reveal his hand as lay out the facts and raise questions about the propriety of the events described and the listener's feelings about them. Do the unfortunate circumstances of Billy Austin's environment excuse murder? Should the punishment fit the crime? The call is yours.

The Dukes back Earle ferociously throughout, and in Maria McKee (who's also credited as co-writer on two tunes), Earle has found a smart vocal counterpart whose plaintive support pours serious heartbreak on the songs. Lyrically acute, musically precise, thematically compelling, The Hard Way, like Copperhead Road before it, eats up those socially conscious rockers whose messages clutter their groove.