Another religious experience

After last fall's Mary Gauthier and Ron Hynes concert in a church, I thought that was about as much as you could do with getting former drug addicts to gather in a place of worship to play music. But Tuesday night's Steve Earle concert at St. Matthews managed to match and exceed that show. Let's face it. Mr. Earle has known his share of self inflicted trouble. He has spent a fair amount of time behind bars for drug infractions, ranging from being a Heroin addict caught with his stash, to being so stupid as to go back to Texas with a bag of weed in his possession.

Of course it seems that this time, he has cleaned up his act, and is on the path to maybe making it past the age of 60. A good part of that success may be due to the infusion of beauty (and talent) into his life via the beautiful Allison Moorer, seen below.

Alison came on first, after an extremely orderly and well organized seating for the sell out crowd (at over $50 a seat). She played about 8 songs, most from her recent release of covers, appropriately called Mockingbird. A highlight was her version of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now. Any Joni song is difficult to manage and she does so in an effortless manner. She did not sing Gillian Welch's Revelator, which is on the album.... I may need to find the disk now.

Steve came out shortly after her set, (long enough for people to take a short stretch) and played solid for about two and a half hours. It was truly a marathon, with the heat in the building. I was exhausted after the show, and Steve seemed pretty well OK with it. Maybe he really has cleaned up.

Here is a picture of what he looks like now. Quite the beard.

This was a great show, with some very cool turntable and electro-percussive work from a crew member that allowed some of the more urban sounds on his last couple of albums to be conveyed.

It was a show that will be difficult to match this year, one I don't think old Elton will come close to. Here we have a master of his form at the top of his game. To see him in a small acoustically great venue was wonderful. I can't see tired old Elton in the trashy Metro Centre coming close as a musical experience. Maybe as a spectacle, and we do know he has lots of those, right?

This musical couple continues their traveling road show in Ontario before heading south to their home and native land in the American Northeast. Of note, I'd recommend the 4 night stand at the Judson Memorial Church in New York from September 22 to 26.

Steve Earle in church? You betcha.