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Album Details

• Artist: Steve Earle
• Album: Train A Comin'
• Label: Stoney Plain
• Year of Release: 1995
• ME Rating: Indie Classic
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-07-24

Train A Comin' marked two things for Steve Earle, a return to recording as well as a clean up from drugs. Ever since this album Steve has been in a creative high and there is no end in sight to his talented songwriting. Train A Comin' is a cleaning up of scattered tunes that were left in Earle's songbooks; ones that were never recorded etc. He assembled a very able group of Nashville musicians: Peter Rowan, Norman Blake, Roy Huskey Jr. along with Emmylou Harris singing backup on a couple of songs. There are a number of amazing story telling songs on Train. "Ben McCulloch" recalls a story of a Civil War participant. "Tom Ames' Prayer" is truly one of the finest American stories ever put to music. Steve also proves a worth ballad writer as well with "Goodbye", a song that Emmylou Harris made her own on her amazing Wrecking Ball CD. He is able to have fun with a track like "Angel Is The Devil" as well. The second half of the album is filled with some pretty amazing versions of classic songs like the Beatles "I'm Looking Through You" and Steve's favorite songwriter Townes VanZandt's "Tecumseh Valley". If in any point in your life you have appreciated Steve Earle and you had never discovered this album, do yourself a favor and seek this one out. It is one of Earle's many shining moments.

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