Steve Earle & The Dukes GUY 2LP (Orange & Red Swirl Vinyl)

TAS Rated 4.5/5 Music, 3.5/5 Sonics in the July/August 2019 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Steve Earle was nineteen and had just hitchhiked from San Antonio to Nashville in 1974. Back then if you wanted to be where the best songwriters were you had to be there. Guy Clark had moved to Nashville and if you were from Texas, Guy Clark was king.

Flash forward more than forty years. In the fall of 2018, Steve and The Dukes went into House Of Blues studio in Nashville and recorded GUY in six days. "I wanted it to sound live...When you've got a catalog like Guy's and you're only doing sixteen tracks, you know each one is going to be strong."

Earle and his current, perhaps best-ever, Dukes lineup including Kelley Looney on bass, Chris Masterson on guitar, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle and mandolin, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel and Brad Pemberton on drums and percussion, take on these songs with a spirit of reverent glee and invention. GUY also features guest appearances by fellow Guy Clark cohorts Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Terry Allen, Jerry Jeff Walker, Mickey Raphael, Shawn Camp, Verlon Thompson, Gary Nicholson, and the photographer Jim McGuire.

But in the end GUY leads the listener back to its beginning, namely Guy Clark, which is what any good "tribute" should do. GUY is a saga of friendship, its ups and downs, what endures. We are lucky that Earle remembers and honors these things, because like old friends, GUY is a diamond.

Few artists paint a scene with lyrics and music the way Steve Earle does. One master who taught Earle his craft is out-law country songwriter Guy Clark, who died in 2016. On this new tribute album, Earle takes a run at 16 songs from his mentor, mining Clark's well of emotion and novelist-worthy storytelling... Earle and the Dukes are right at home serving up the country, bluegrass, and folk songs with a heady brew of guitar, mandolin, fiddle, harmonica, dobro, pedal steel guitar, percussion, and powerful harmonies. The rollicking 'Sis Draper' is pure, unadulterated fun, with Earle and company perfectly capturing the tale of anticipation over a house guest who is sure to bring good times.