Sections

Earle roars through guitar rock with uncommon bravado

Chances are that the proverb "all things in moderation" is entirely foreign to Steve Earle. The singer/songwriter seems incapable of doing anything halfway. For example, he couldn't have made a decent debut record back in 1986 -- he had to hit Nashville with an instant country-rock classic, "Guitar Town." And he couldn't just get married and settle down -- Earle had to try it with five different women. He couldn't merely dabble in drugs, either -- he had to develop an all-consuming heroin addiction that nearly killed him (and his career) and eventually landed him in jail.

It follows, then, that Steve Earle wouldn't make just any old comeback. True to form, he's returned to the industry scene with a vengeance. His new album "I Feel Alright" has garnered breathlessly enthusiastic reviews in every publication from Rolling Stone to the fanzine No Depression. So his sold-out performance Sunday at Pontiac's 7th House couldn't merely entertain -- it had to rock harder than any live set in recent memory.

It did.

Reunited with his long-time band the Dukes (including long-time bassist Kelly Looney and guitarist/keyboardist Marty Stewart), Earle roared through over two hours of some of the finest guitar rock ever to come out of Nashville, or anywhere else in this country, for that matter. The group faithfully recreated most of the tracks from the new record, including the fiery folk-rock song "Hard-Core Troubadour," the gorgeous, Beatlesque pop tune "More Than I Can Do," the rockabilly "Poor Boy," and a speeded-up version of the story-song "Billy and Bonnie."

The Dukes, however, were at their best when reinventing Earle's older, more country-oriented songs. Drummer Custer (who couldn't keep his shirt on to save his life) added massive, booming bass beats to "Fearless Heart." "Someday" and "Guitar Town" benefited from noisier, anthemic guitar work and the prominent backing vocals of Looney and Stewart. "Exit 0" and "Sweet Little `66" (the concert was in Pontiac, but must every male rocker sing an ode to his automobile?) rocked harder than ever.

Unfortunately buried in the mix for much of the set, the soulful slide guitar work of David Steel (the youngest and newest Duke) made ferocious jams of "The Unrepentant," "Poor Boy" and "My Baby Worships Me."

A mid-show solo acoustic set allowed Earle to focus on quieter, more affecting songs like "My Old Friend the Blues," "Valentine's Day," "Goodbye" (Earle's lone choice from his much-heralded 1995 record "Train a Comin'"). Earle preceded the wrenching "Ellis Unit One" (from Tim Robbins' recent film "Dead Man Walking") with a lengthy argument against capital punishment, deploring his former home state of Texas for leading the nation in executions.

On stage, Earle exhibited his trademark badass bravado (his black aviator shades never left his face), but also a real emotional vulnerability. The singer introduced the bittersweet "Valentine's Day" by describing his desperate situation on Feb. 13, 1995: "I can't get no kind of license ... well, I got a fishin' license I'm real proud of ... but at 11 p.m. it was real clear I wasn't goin' anywhere." Giftless and cardless, Earle wrote the song for his current wife Lou Anne (also wife No. 4), he said, "out of sheer desperation. Truth is, I ain't afraid of nothin' but that redheaded gal. I'm afraid she'll leave me."

Earle's encore choices were surprising, but right on: a tanked-up version of "State Trooper" by Bruce Springsteen ("that hillbilly singer from New Jersey," as Earle called him) and a relevatory jam on the Rolling Stones' "Dead Flowers."

As Earle sang during the Dukes' spitfire rendition of the new album's title track, "I've been to hell and now I'm back again/And I feel alright tonight." Judging from the hollers that followed those lyrics, no one in attendance could have been happier about it. Although Earle's performance was, in a sense, a sermon to the converted (a large portion of the audience sang along with every word of the older songs "I Ain't Ever Satisfied," "Angry Young Man" and "My Baby Worships Me"), the rapt crowd all but genuflected to the man. Earle acknowledged shouts of "glad to see you" with a humble, "Glad to be seen. It was close, believe me." However, some audience members got a little too enthusiastic for his liking. To one persistent fan who howled, "STEVE EARLE ROCKS!" during the acoustic set, the singer replied, "Man, I remember my first beer, too."

While he acknowledged, "I ain't that well yet," Earle has certainly settled down since his younger days. These days, he reserves his attitude for his music, though he's still prone to an occasional walk on the wild side: as the Dukes left the stage after the second and final encore, a fan handed Earle a black T-shirt, which he accepted with a wicked smile. It read "Harley FUCKIN' Davidson."