Saw him play Amoeba Records in the Haight (SF) circa 2001 and got my copy of Jerusalem signed, and again on TRSN tour in 2004 at the Warfield ... Love me some Steve ...
He is a bit of a 'one hit wonder' in a SENSE I guess, but that don't mean shit. Plenty of amazing artists w/brilliant careers that have exactly ZERO 'hits' ... Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen (unless you count Hallelujah which was never a 'hit' but has become well-known, mostly due to Jeff Buckley) come to mind. And shoot, has Lyle Lovett ever actually had a bona-fide 'hit'? Brian Eno? Did Television have one? Jonathon Richman?
There's also lots of awesome artists your average person could probably name only one song by (even if they've had many great albums over many years) ... Todd Rundgren (that 'Bang the Drum' song), Cheap Trick (I Want U To Want Me), Talking Heads (Burning Down the House), The Clash (Rock the Casbah), Kiss (not actually a good band, but ... Rock and Roll All Night), Flaming Lips (She Uses Vaseline), Cake (Going the Distance), Faith No More (Epic) ... I could go on and on ...
Anyway, though I love Steve, he hasn't really put out a top-to-bottom great album in a bit too long for my liking. Transcendental Blues (2000) is the last ... though Jerusalem was still pretty good ... things started getting real spotty with TRSN (the title track though is one of my all time fave songs of his) which was also the time when his voice started giving out (or something changed about it ... got more nasal for one thing) and he no longer really sounded like Steve Earle to me. The POWER has been going from it ever since TB ... That has depressed me when I listen to his newer stuff. Always end up putting on one from the string of 5 GREATS he put out just after jail ... Train A' Comin' through TB.
I Feel Alright and El Corazon were his apex though ... Guitar Town & Copperhead Road were also brilliant.
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