[.ca] Copperhead Road

From Amazon.com:
It happens to every hard partier--your lifestyle eventually catches up to you. For Steve Earle, this third so-so effort from the then-roué-ish troubadour was a pretty glaring rehab-ahead warning light. The sloppiness was beginning to show: half the disc bogs down in throwaways, cheap echoes of Guitar Town and Exit 0's country-rock acumen. The rest, fortunately, is prime, focused Earle: the Vietnam-vet title track, the Wild West-themed "Snake Oil," and the oft-covered classic "The Devil's Right Hand," in which the composer achieves that perfect balance of city-slick pop and hillbilly twang. Earle would hit that one-two combo again, but not until he shook that party monkey a few albums later. --Tom Lanham

sentimental favourite:
Like many people, it was this album that introduced me to a Texan singer/songwriter named Steve Earle. I first heard this album at a cabin party in the summer of 1989, right before shipping off to university. The upheaval of that period of my life has left me with an indelible impression of the music I got into at that time. So enamoured of his work was I, that I eventually got his 2 previous albums and fell in love with them too. Something about the rebel spirit captured the attention in me, as a middle income, eastern Canadian, with conservative roots and values. It still does. The album holds a special place in my heart because of all that. But looking on it in an objective fashion, I can see its flaws. It isn't as cohesive an album as the one preceding, or following it. However, it contains the seminal title song, "Copperhead Road", which has gained immortal status (and might garner Earle, in some circles, the label of "one hit wonder".....certainly it's unlikely he'll ever achieve this kind of commercial success again). "Devil's Right Hand" and "Johnny Come Lately" (with the Pogues, who's albums "If I Should Fall From Grace With God", and "Peace and Love" appeared about the same time) are classics as well, but the rest of the album is a little over the map. Still, it is an essential part of the Earle canon, and there was a time, in the early 90s, when this CD sat on the shelf of every 20 year old collector, right beside Tom Petty's "Full Moon Fever".

Very Good:
Of the albums Earle put out before he spent time in jail and cleaned up his act, this is the best. The band sounds good and the collection of songs is first rate. The title track is one of Earle's best. He also does a version of his song, The Devil's Right Hand, which is another of his best. The Cheiftains make an appearance. I happen to like his post-arrest albums better. Earle, unlike many other artists, actually became a better song writer after he became sober and his albums of the mid-ninties to the present are, almost without exception, excellent and Copperhead Road is the closest he came before that time.

The DEA's got a chopper in the air...:
Classic Stevie. The Nam-era combat patch alone gives you something of the flavor of this powerful album. Steve actually just missed being drafted (he was born in 1955) as they stopped shipping draftees in 1972. Under the Paris Peace accords, there were massive troop withdrawals, during which many of the Surgical and Evac. Hospitals also pulled out. By April, 1973 it was basically over. Yet Steve's two-tour Vietnam Vet in Copperhead Road has many real-life counterparts. In many ways Copperhead Road is the ultimate rebel song, in which the grass-growing Vet indicates that the lessons he learned from Charlie (Victor Charlie = VC) make him one heck of a threat to the sissy DEA helicopters (just take out the tail rotors). These combat veterans were never honored for their service, and for many reasons, they had an arrest rate of more than twice that of a comparable non Vet. You get the sense that this is Steve's 'what if' song, in that he could see himself being in the same position as the Vet who comes back 'with a brand new plan'. Devil's Right Hand is without a doubt one of his best songs, and one of THE best songs you are ever going to hear. Yeah, very much a post-country album and one that gave the world two songs (the rest are good, too) which stand as true modern classics, and which assure the survival of Steve as an artist to be reckoned with, against all competition. Worth it for the cover alone!

My only ever 5 star review!:
This is the ultimate country / folk / rock crossover album. There isn't a bad track on it and there are a handful of classics. There are so many reviews on this album that I won't go into too much detail. As a result of hearing this album, I bought everything that Steve Earle has done and the Pogues backing on Johnny Come Lately, saw me buy everything that the Pogues have done! Do yourself a favour, buy this album now and save yourself some money on delivery by buying Guitar Town and Exit 0 at the same time.

Great song but...:
Title track is great, on the whole though the songs are pretty weak.

• Copperhead Road
• Snake Oil
• Back to the Wall - Steve Earle, Steve Earle, Steve Earle
• Devil's Right Hand - Steve Earle, Steve Earle, Steve Earle
• Johnny Come Lately - Steve Earle, Steve Earle, Steve Earle
• Even When I'm Blue
• You Belong to Me
• Waiting on You
• Once You Love
• Nothing But a Child