Concert
Ballroom Marfa presented Steve Earle and the Dukes at the Crowley Theater on June 14, 2015.
A protégé of legendary songwriters Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, Earle quickly became a master storyteller in his own right, with his songs being recorded by Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Travis Tritt, The Pretenders, Joan Baez and countless others. 1986 saw the release of his debut record, Guitar Town, which shot to number one on the country charts. What followed was a varied array of releases including the biting hard rock of Copperhead Road (1988), the minimalist beauty of Train A Comin’ (1995), the politically charged masterpiece Jerusalem (2002), and the Grammy Award-winning albums The Revolution Starts…Now (2004), Washington Square Serenade (2007) and Townes (2009).
On his 16th studio album, Terraplane, Earle pays tribute to the blues, influenced by the blues giants he saw growing up in Texas — Lightnin’ Hopkins, Freddy King, Johnny Winter, Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Canned Heat, and Billy Gibbons. Recorded in Nashville, the new collection is his homage to the music that he calls “the commonest of human experience, perhaps the only thing that we all truly share,” and a record he has wanted to make for a long time. Over 11 original tracks, Earle and his band The Dukes traverse various forms of the blues — from the Texas roadhouse blues of opener “Baby Baby Baby (Baby)” to the Chicago blues of “The Usual Time.”
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Acknowledgments
The Steve Earle performance has been made possible by the generous support provided by Matt & Mikelle Kruger and Ballroom Marfa members.
In-kind support provided by Big Bend Brewing Company, SAVED Wines, and Crowley Theater.
Special thanks to The Big Bend Sentinel, Lesley Brown, Rob Crowley, Tim Crowley, JD DiFabbio, Hilary duPont, Cuca Flores, Chris Hillen, Liz Janoff, Mallory Jones, Vance Knowles, Marfa Public Radio, Marfa Recording Company, Alex Marks, Jose Martinez, Jeff Matheis, Tom Michael, Suzy Simon, Mishka Westell, and Jonathan Wyckoff.