Steve Earle & the Del McCoury Band
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The first few times I listened to The Mountain, the new album Steve Earle recorded with the Del McCoury Band, I couldn’t stop thinking what poor use he’d made of the group he himself calls the “best bluegrass band working today.” Despite Earle’s declared love for bluegrass and his close identification with Texas country-rock bards like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, he’s always played far more rock than country: from his wonderfully bombastic 1988 breakthrough album, Copperhead Road, to his 1996 comeback anthem “Feel Alright,” his music consistently reveals his love for the real fist-pumping, roof-rattling stuff. And while the best rock and the best bluegrass do share a certain intensity, Earle’s never been much for subtlety; against the onslaught of overamplified modern music, on the other hand, bluegrass’s acoustic subtlety has become one of its greatest strengths.
Last week, when Earle performed at the Vic with McCoury’s virtuosic but restrained band–singer and guitarist Del; his sons, mandolinist Ronnie and banjoist Rob; fiddler Jason Carter; and bassist Mike Bub–this schism occasionally became very apparent. During “Dixieland,” a Pogues-ish tune from the new album, Earle let out a hearty whoop that seemed like a plea for the sort of cheap, instant kick in the ass only a rock band can deliver; he went ungratified. And when he played a handful of his best-known tunes by himself in the middle of the show, he bludgeoned the chords more than he strummed them, substituting sheer force for suitable accompaniment.
