Steve Earle: Just an American Boy

Reviewed by GRAHAM REID

Herald rating: * * * *

Earle's excellent Jerusalem album of late 2002 not only confirmed he was one of the most consistently powerful and electrifying agit-folk singer-songwriters since Dylan in the 60s but that he was unafraid to exercise his democratic right to freedom of speech in a climate which branded him as unpatriotic.

His ballad for John Walker, the American captured fighting with the Taleban, put him in the crossfire but fearlessly he has continued to speak out about the true nature of democracy and the need for dissent.

This live double disc brings late-comers up to date as he moves from Stones-style rock, back to bluegrass and politicised folk (his moving Over Yonder and old-school Woody Guthrie Leftism) and nods to his earliest days in versions of Copperhead Road and Guitar Town.

He peppers the set with humorous anecdotes, his opposition to the death penalty and the war in Iraq, and copes well with those audience members who, God knows why, whoop and bellow for no apparent reason. An essential voice here heard as it should be.

(Artemis/Elite)