Steve Earle has never been too shy about pissing people off. The singer, songwriter, actor, writer and activist alarmed a whole legion of Bob Dylan fanatics when he once made a somewhat critical comparison of Dylan’s songwriting skills to Townes Van Zandt’s.
In the more blatantly political realm, and in what now seems like a distant past that only foreshadowed our outraged present, he wrote a song from that aimed to imagine its way into the mind of John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban” fighter. And last year Earle said he thought Donald Trump was a fascist.
Last year Earle also released “So You Wannabe An Outlaw,” an album that delves into some of the Texas outlaw country legends that stamped Earle’s formative years before he left the Lone Star State for Music City. The album has a few heartbreak songs, some story songs, plenty of bright-sounding Telecaster and the traces of old-school trucker country.
Earle, in his 60s now, was sort of gruff-voiced throwback to a classic sound when he emerged in the late ’80s. Now he’s an elder statesman, an obvious precursor to artists like Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton and Miranda Lambert.
Steve Earle & the Dukes come to College Street Music Hall, 238 College St., New Haven, on Tuesday, April 10, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $45 to $65. collegestreetmusichall.com.
