Steve Earle

A storied old folk singer who can name an album The Revolution Starts Now and mean it, Steve Earle has gotten increasingly political in recent years: He got a lot of attention in 2002 for “John Walker’s Blues,” a song that dared to present American citizen and Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh as a human being rather than an object for ridicule and hate. On the heels of his 2009 full-length, Townes, a tribute to his late friend and mentor Townes Van Zandt, Earle’s returned with a 2011 record, I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive. The album accompanies Earle’s debut novel of the same name, which follows a morphine-addicted ex-doctor as he’s haunted by his old patient and friend Hank Williams.

Updated 01/11/2012