Steve Earle: Sidetracks

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Earle has carved his own path between country, rock and bluegrass, sometimes pulling them all together.

This 13-track collection is of "unreleased or underexposed songs," most of the underexposed coming from soundtracks such as the kick-off downbeat rocker Some Dreams, written for The Rookie.

Elsewhere there's the spare and Dylanesque Me and the Eagle from The Horse Whisperer, a bruising cover of Nirvana's Breed, much as Neil Young and Crazy Horse might do it, and a surprisingly good version of the reggae classic Johnny Too Bad with a Jamaican vocal group and toaster C-Fax.

There's also a duet with Sheryl Crow on the Chambers Brothers' Time Has Come Today (with a speech by activist Abbie Hoffman), the Springsteen-sounding ballad Ellis Unit One, a track with the Supersuckers, Lowell George's Willin' and some bluegrass. Wry liner notes, a bit all over the place, but it's Earle and he can pull it off.

Label: Sony