Steve Earle and Alison Moorer

Thu 30th Oct, 2008 in Features

Steve Earle and Allison Moorer have been together for a while now and after spending some time with them on the phone I get the sense that this marriage might stick for both of them. Touring, spending most of their tome together and doing things they love are bringing out a sense of joy that was definitely noticeable in their voices.

Steve has recently released Washington Square Serenade, probably one of the mellowest records he has presented in years. Alison has also recorded a beautiful record of covers entitled Mockingbird, on which she wraps her vocal chords around some of the best songs written by other female singer songwriters. With their tour of Australia about to hit our shores in November, we are in for a musical treat – even if we don’t get The Dukes along on this tour. As a matter of fact, they are joined this time by some turntables and a disc jockey. In some corners of the internet, people are saying negative things. Do I call those folks imbeciles?

“There has not been any real [negative] reaction from anyone who has a wife or a girlfriend about touring with a DJ,” Earle drawls. “Nerds that live on the internet have to complain about something. We did have one gig, early in the tour in England and at Cambridge I think. I had ear monitors in so I can’t really hear that much anyway and someone yelled something out and then they left. It was one guy. I am still kicking myself in the ass today because I was not sharp enough to say, – œI don’t believe you.’ I think not digging turntables is a racist issue and I would prefer racists not come to see me play anyway.”

Steve is closer to Bob Dylan on this record in more ways then one. Living in Greenwich Village, and with his livelihood now placed in New York City, he has given us a treat based on his love of life. Come Home To Me and Days Aren’t Long Enough are two examples of where his head and heart are these days. Of course his politics are still at the forefront when you speak to him. His take on where America stands is worth hearing.

“It is really scary right now,” he says. “My politics are well to the left of the mainstream of the United States, but I understand and I grew up with the same things everyone else grew up with. I understand why people believe what they believe. I grew up with Nikita Khrushchev on television with Vaseline on the lens looking all fuzzy and scary and hearing what he was saying like, ‘We will bury you’. I really believed if I encountered Nikita he would eat me immediately. I grew up with all that stuff. But because of the music, I got exposed to other stuff from pretty early on.”

And where does the economy seem to be headed?

“That is what this bailout is about [helping the banks], but it is being used to disguise a bailout for really incredibly irresponsible people who were gambling with the savings of Americans. I believe these people were led to believe, and they wanted to believe, that they were going to be part of the – œclub’. It is like Marxism 101 where you use the upper middle class and the lower middle class to control the working people. We don’t even care about the working class people in this country anymore.

“I have to be optimistic and I think there is a really good chance that Obama is going to get elected. I think if Obama is elected there is a better then average chance he is going to do what he said and take us out of the war. I think as soon as we stop spending that money on the war we have a good opportunity for economic recovery. That is the best I can hope for right now in the short term.

“There are people my age or older who literally have their whole pension dependent on the markets and it is all gone. Politically this may be a good thing, but I hate saying that because I am going to be alright. Most of my money is in guitars and I am kind of a Communist so I don’t invest money in the stock market because I just don’t believe in it, but I also don’t gamble. I used to and I just don’t do it anymore.”

Living in New York seems to have mellowed Steve a bit, maybe because he does not have to argue with the Baptists and redneck attitudes that faced him down south in guitar town, Nashville. But after talking to Alison and her down home-hippie mentality, I sensed it might be the woman in his life.

Alison has been on the scene for a while and has put out some sparkling records, but most of the songs she has penned herself. But Mockingbird, except for the title track, is a change of direction. She simply shines on Gillian Welch’s Revelator, Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now and the surprise cover of Patti Smith’s Dancing Barefoot.

I smiled when I heard that on the record and asked her about how hard it was to cover that track. “I was talking to Steve about this and I do in my live set A Change Is Gonna Come [Sam Cooke] and he was talking about that it really takes a lot of balls to cover that song,” says Alison from New York. “I guess I have never been afraid to cover any song. I don’t know if it is just ignorance and I never thought I can’t cover that.”

So how difficult was it picking the dozen songs on the record? “It was a chore. I thought it was going to be this fun thing but it turned into hair pulling. There are so many great female singer/songwriters out there. Trying to weed through all the material and God knows I probably missed quite a bit. I just felt like I didn’t want to miss anything. But, at the same time, I wanted to make a record that hung together and I think I came up with 12 that worked. That part of the process was so much harder then making a record of my own songs – œcause I will trash my own songs right and left, but other peoples songs I am a little more careful with,” Alison laughs.

Besides the records and the touring with her husband, Alison has branched out and has started her own line of clothing, 1 Turtle Dove. Listening to her talk about why she went down this path truly shows that she and Steve have similar politics.

“I have always been a big lover of fashion. Actually I started sewing because I didn’t feel good about the way a lot of the clothes are being made these days. My mother sewed and my grandmother sewed so I grew up in this culture of handmade things and knowing where things came from. I didn’t want to go through my entire life and not know what it is like to wear something that I have made. I really wanted to continue with that tradition.”

“I started sewing and discovered that I had sort of a really innate knowledge of how it works. I am working on a small collection and it is not a celebrity label. I actually do sit down at a sewing machine. I think that having the knowledge that people are being exploited and that if you continue to support that it is really bad for your karma. Part of the hippie culture is you know who made it and you know where the material came from and I like to know who made what I wear.

“You know one of the reasons we are in the fix that that we are in, in the United States, is that we don’t make anything anymore. We farm it all out. Everyone thinks they should be the boss and no one should be the worker. I think we are going to have to go back to that and appreciate the great artists we have in this country and wait longer for things and pay more for them and have less.”

Steve Earle and Alison Moorer will be bringing their gifts of songwriting, singing and playing to Australia very soon. Based on the set-lists and reviews I have seen, we will be in for a night of storytelling and beautiful music. Enjoy it while you can still afford it is what I say.

Steve Earle and Alison Moore play these theatre shows.

Sunday 2 – Regal Theatre, Perth
Tuesday 4 – Norwood Concert Hall, Adelaide
Thursday 6 – Forum Theatre, Melbourne
Saturday 8 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Monday 10 – Tivoli Theatre, Brisbane