Customer Reviews

Train a Comin'

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That's not an exaggeration - this is one of the greatest albums ever made. I would put it into my top 20 or even top 10. No matter how many times I listen to it, I never seem to get sick of it. This is timeless, simple, honest roots music. "Mercenary Song" is an absolute gem. It's such an uplifting song...it's like a breath of fresh air...as if an exclamation mark is at the end of every line. Just when the world thought Mr. Earle was finished, he gives us this. Talk about a come back...

Having discovered Steve Earle for myself just after Guitar Town, I had a hard time watching and listening to him kill himself through the late eighties and early nineties. When I stumbled across this album in the new releases rack at Phil's Records I was initially afraid that it was going to be a posthumous career retrospective or another patchy live album. Well, I've rarely been so pleasantly surprised. Train A Comin' is an acoustic masterpiece recorded with a group of musicians who were well aware of Earle's destructive nature, but also of his genius. One listen will be enough to convince you that his genius reigns above all. There are no weak songs here. Even his cover of "I'm Looking Through You" by a band whose name escapes me at the moment, ;-) is a worthy listen. Steve sounds almost breezy as he effortlessly lopes through it. The surprise for me was that he wrote Travis Tritt's hit "Sometimes She Forgets", although upon listening to it I can't imagine how I could not think that he did. "Tom Ames' Prayer" is my favorite on the album, both for the imagery and his phrasing. The ending is fantastic, and one can easily imagine Steve actually existing in this mindset in the midst of his drug problems. I can't recommend this album enough. Steve, welcome back to the land of the living. You can't imagine how you were missed.

I remember when I found this cd. It was the day it was released, and to my knowledge, Steve Earle was in prison on drug charges. The dude at the music store had this in his hand to put on the shelf, and I was like, a new Steve Earle recording? I had to buy it, but I figured it was some "outtakes" from his previous recordings which I had grew less and less fond of.

I got home, and SON!!!! New recordings!!!! Acoustic recordings!!!! Steve Earle had been up to something and didnt' even tell anyone!!!!

All the songs here are top notch bluegrassy, stringband type songs. No overblown "I want to be a rock star" songs. He covers and now has the definate version of "Tecumseh Valley." But I can't single out one song here that is better than the others.

This is the album, that to me, stands next to "Guitar Town" as the works that define what Steve Earle is all about.

Now lets just hope for another effort like this one.

When this CD came out in the mid-90's, all-acoustic "unplugged" albums where artists re-recorded their greatest hits with acoustic instruments had become sort of a fad, thanks to MTV. However, if you are expecting something like that, you are in for a surprise. This is just a kick-ass, hard-country album, with (almost) all original songs. The only album I would compare this to would be Waylon Jennings' "Honky Tonk Heroes" -- which is saying a whole hell of a lot.

The only song on this CD which I could do without is "Rivers of Babylon", which is an attempt at some kind of country reggae. However, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can skip this track without having to pick a needle up and put it back down without scratching the record, or even having to mess around with a fast-forward button. Is the 21st century great or what?

If you like country music, or if you just like good music, don't pass this record up!