 And hopefully you can hear me. Okay, Steve. It's the music stuff. I was able to hear you. I didn't hear the music I heard a bunch of marching stuff and now I can hear you fine. So good. So the problem was your music basically Is that what you're saying? Yeah, well maybe so but do you have to blend it on George F. Walker, which would be unseemly as he's past All right, then you're coming to the the Northwest here and Next week actually and it's next Wednesday, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, that's right. I mean, I'm on the road sir every night Saturday night and every morning is Monday morning It's kind of I've never know what day it is on the road what day of the week it is I think it's Tuesday. So I think that's right. We have Says here Wednesday, Steve. Yeah, oh today Wednesday. Okay, then see nice Okay, that makes sense and I did You know like we were in Ireland for a second for the Galway folk festival and then You know came over from some UK dates and then headed Heated to Spain for one show flew back to England And now then we have these three hard ticket dates in Ireland were so in first time in Sligo ever So that's that's kind of that's gonna be an experience. I've been to Sligo a Lot, but I've never played there. Yeah, and you've been to Galway a lot I mean you've a great affinity with Galway, so it's only up the road Yeah, it was it was yeah I had friends that lived in Sligo and I went up there to sit in sessions sometimes when I was in I spent winners in Galway for several years in the night like kind of the mid part of the 90s to the early 2000s because I was just become So fascinated with music there. It started a long time ago with with um, you know I knew that the music that I that I played You know it had its roots in Ireland the Scotland, you know all along and then when I moved east to Nashville and got around more, you know music that came from the Appalachians rather than the Texas stuff I grew up with it was even more connected to that and then a couple of things happened the Pogues and Our first records came out at the same time and I learned a lot from Terry Woods who who was the one Guy in that band that was steeped in trad, you know Because he'd been in steel I span and he came in as a guest musician on their second record and stayed and And when I got to know those guys, I learned a lot from Terry and from the other guys in the band and then Then met Mike Scott's a friend that he made Fisherman's lose while I was over here producing another record and and Sharon Shannon, you know did some of that with him and I met her through that and when Sharon's first record came Out was right after I kind of got out of jail and started my life over again and Sharon I started recording together and that's Sharon's band on the Galway girl in the original recording It's the woodchoppers are band at the time which was Sharon the came the came sisters and you know, it's Mary was on banjo Mary Shannon on banjo. It's a pretty great band You know somebody that's afraid to open yourself up to new influences in you your reference someone there they're starting out with Obviously, you know music that formed your background and but then opening it up to roots and blues and You know music that came from Appalachian Right Yes, it's where you are Singer, you know, I mean I started out in coffee houses So there's a little bit, you know, I mean some of it's probably Being an overachieving auto didact. I have like an eighth grade education So everything I've ever learned I've had to go out and find out for myself, you know mostly in books and Records and I had really good teachers. I met Townsend that when I was 17 and Guy Clark when I went and Jerry Jeff Walker when I was 19 You know, I got to national at this moment when it was sort of this Progressive songwriting salon going on and it didn't really ask less forever But I got there for the heart of it and and I learned a lot in a very short period of time And it just sort of taught me to keep my ears open and you know I was afraid to make a bluegrass record for a long time and and because it was such That's not primitive music. It's really sophisticated music It was invented about the same time as bebop and it was people that just came from a different part of the country thinking along the same lines Bill Monroe was Was like a pretty highly evolved creature when it comes right down to he invented an art form an American art form and it's I Finally got up the nerve to do it and I did it with the best bluegrass man in the world at the time And you know, I'm Recorded with Sharon Now of course, I do need to make an Irish record one these days. I do need to I know everybody I know Donna Lenny. I know Sharon. I know I've got to make a record at some point and you know And you know the clock is ticking, you know, I'm 68 years old, so I got to do it sometime soon I would imagine if you call them up and say listen, how about we do something together that you'd be pushing The other night We'll see what happens What's what's the Steve Earl show like these days, I mean, you know, there's So many genres that you could include in your show. So, you know To even a passing fan What's what's the show? What does it contain these days? You'll hear a lot of songs that you want to hear I mean, I'm I'm always sensitive to that. I play copperhead red every night I played the goal a girl every night But this shows pretty much You know, I saw Bruce Springsteen earlier in the year and he came to our show in Birmingham the other night he was people a Birmingham the night before and and You know, he played my benefit for my son's school last year and and it's just He's sort of the performer that we were all trying to keep up with when I started making records because he kept the bar very very high and You know, he came out this year and the show is very much It's a rock show and it's what people want to hear. I'm touring without a band So that the way to make that The sort of things that that I think fans will be happy with especially when I haven't been to a lot of these places since before the lockdown This is my first trip to Europe before we all got locked down So it's kind of a songbook. It's stuff from that goes back to my first record and and I think people have been pretty happy with it So far and it's I don't change the set very much. I don't use a set list There's a piece of paper on stage and a lot of people a few people in smaller venues have grabbed them thinking they're getting a set list And that's not what it is. It's it's a list of names that if you haven't seen the show you want to understand I wrote a song Called it's about blood on the last record of original material I released which was called ghosts of west virginia And it's the names of 29 men killed in an explosion in a coal mine 14 years ago in west virginia They're part of the last part of a song that I do in the show and I'm terrified of leaving out one of those guys names I'm pretty good at memorizing stuff as an actor and as a songwriter and a singer but But I'm just terrified if I leave one of those names out, you know, I just can't taste that so I've always had that list on the stage Okay, funny should reference Bruce Springsteen because I thought in this tour that he was a he was an artist in a way And it's not not like him but to be looking back rather than forward But also he was a little self-indulgent and you know, we'll definitely allow him that It wasn't a it wasn't a tour for you know, the casual fan But but absolutely really you've thought that I I don't know I I saw it in new jersey Just a few weeks ago and I don't think it's changed very much from everything I've heard I heard everything I wanted to hear And except for Johnny 99 because I'd heard that that was being performed and I've never seen him do it with the east street Then my first Bruce Springsteen show was a Wildeus in the east street shuffle And and Liberty Hall in Houston in 1972 and he opened with wild billy circus on so I've seen a lot of Springsteen shows but this one Um, I don't know he played the only thing he didn't play that I that I was looking for was Johnny 99 And I saw him after the show and he said yeah, I did I saw him in New Jersey I saw him in in Newark and he said yeah, I replaced that with Jersey girl tonight. That's okay fair enough You have a self-indulgent really well, maybe maybe you saw a different show on a different planet. Yeah Although I didn't see I probably didn't see a different show because you're not changing the setlist that much this time around But yeah, I changed it. I know But um Bruce aside Your tour you tour mostly during the summer now Well, I suppose this is the first time in europe since covet but mostly during the summer Is that weather related or No, I mean It's one thing the weather here is like changed so much I don't think I'd be thinking about that very much I mean, it's like all my friends over here getting skin cancer because there's nothing used to this much sun but it's uh I don't know it's it's real. It's just about I I wish I could tour all the time year around But two things the most important is I have a son who's 13 who has autism And he he's in a school in new york city that he's been in since he was three And it has what he needs and the city of new york helps me pay for it and it's more than I can afford I've been married too many times to have accumulated very much and um His mom and I split up around the time he was diagnosed She stayed in the city city for several years She wanted to go back to tennessee And it got to be a little bit of a war for a while and then finally I just said I'll come off the road nine months of the year and keep john henry in school because i'm writing music for theater now Anyway, and I need to be in town for that. Okay But it's and then the other than three months He'll come to you in tennessee and she comes to see him in in new york and I go to national to do the grand ol Opry fairly often about once a month the last year or so And so bring him for the weekend he'll see her then he comes to see her in new york Then she gets him for the summer and I get on a tour bus this year We came to europe first and started in paris On june on june first or june second I guess I guess actually and did a few dates on the continent and then we came over here to these two islands where You know where I sell them us tickets and and uh, and um, you know more people know all my songs Yeah, yeah Irish audiences, uh, how do you find them comparison to uh, you know different parts of the world? Are we are we much the same? Are we more appreciative? Are we louder? It's just I think it's a lot of it is I do well and really well and can't as far as Besides the states and probably better than the states um, you know, england's more population And so I probably sell overall more tickets and make more money touring in england than I do any place else Ireland would be second and it's just because it's a little smaller market. You know, it's one of those things They're not many bigger places to play You know, we're doing vicar street this time. That's what was available. It's a great venue in deblin I've done everything from done the olympia more than any place else um, you know, I was never Never, you know a huge venue Artists any of those places gallway. We played the black box which has kind of been my home there in gallway for a Long time when I get out west It's just In ireland It's and and a lot of my audience in england is irish too. There's not that it's a part of the audience here and everywhere I go. I wrote the gallway girl. So it's that's that's you know, that's the one thing I know is going to be remembered of my work after i'm gone for sure at least on that island and Christelle says some irish guy wrote it because that's what they did with daddy boy But it's not that english guy wrote that song, but it's um it's just you know, uh ireland has The strongest oral tradition of any place i've ever been and it's built more around music than it is any place else I've been and I think that's why it's been such a big part of the heart of the music I the american music I grew up on And it's in canada. It's the same thing. I think there's you know The irish and scottish thing there, which is really the same thing is really super super strong and and that narrative exists and Canada's produced way more than its share of singer-songwriters when you consider the the population Yeah, uh, you're very outspoken and a campaigner about a lot of important issues and And i'm guessing that on tour there'll be anecdotes and stories and Opinions in between the songs and I think that you know part of that is what people come to appreciate and come to here as well Without a doubt. I I'm probably in my old age. Uh, and it probably doesn't have as much to do with age as it does experience. Um I I'm just as militant just as radical as I ever was. I'm a lefty You know and and a pretty hardcore lefty I also grew up in a country with no viable socialist party. So I've always voted with the democratic party I never joined it until I until I had to in order to vote for bernie sanders in a primary election because I thought His his participation in the process was important to a lot of issues the last election cycle I back to joe biden the whole way because I believed he was our only hope and that's proven to be true Whatever everybody goes on on and on about he's I think he's done a pretty good job inflation is is going down He's doing what he said he was going to do and he inherited a mess Because there been basically an orangutan at the controls for four years and a lot of damage can get done at that period of time. So I I uh, you know, all those things are important. I also believe Then I say this and this is more you'll hear more political stuff in my country than you will hear Because I mean there's some scarily American looking things going on on this side of the pond. So, you know, I don't I don't lay completely off of it And and I hope but it's still you know in the states We did get to a point where it becomes so divisive That sometimes rather than preaching to the choir, I found myself preaching at the choir Because I think our problem is is just as much about the left not listening to the right as it is the right not listening to the left I think there's a point at which democracy can only you can't you can't um Hope to have a democracy if you're unwilling to have our conversation with somebody You know, you're going to disagree with when the conversation starts If you've decided in advance, you know what somebody thinks and that it's hopeless And that they're the enemy Then it's over there is no democracy and the people that really are in control of things because they have the most money And the most power have learned to depend on that more and more and more So it's up to us and when we have to learn we used to communicate even when we disagreed in my country And I think it's happened here too. I think you see it and Um, you know, I don't know. I'm in I'm in England at the moment I I saw In both England and Ireland what the european union did and and it was the european union It wasn't people said well, well, that was millennium money Well, it didn't just fall out of the zero at the end of 2000 It came from the european union by and large and and a bunch of countries getting together And what I tell people here is is like especially in England is Be careful because you know, I watch things They're you couldn't even find a phone box that worked in this country when I first came in 1986 things have improved quite a bit Ireland, you know, it was it was I mean there's some bad things that happened after some some american things that happened But I watched Ireland, you know, it was it was I was it was exciting to be in ireland in the mid 90s When she wasn't losing her best and brightest to immigration automatically for the first time in 150 years It was a very very exciting time to be there and I witnessed that and I just think that it's um The european union is like the only hope That anybody Over here and and and this part of the world has of ever being able to equal the influence of the united states in china Which are the two real powers in the world russia's committing suicide as we speak I think I think that's going to be the final outcome of all that but The european union's important entity and it'll either it's going to happen and it's going to be important with or without england And I just sort of feel bad for my friends that live here because they left Well, uh, uh, continue to spread the gospel and uh in in word or in song and uh, uh, the best let's speaking as an outsider and to some degree an impartial witness who witnessed this stuff So that's for what that's worth. Uh, it's it's good to hear some some uh commentary and it's good As you said, it's you know, let's have a more debate and less rancor which seems to be the way absolutely There's all this stuff needs to get talked about and we run into get that just I mean I watched it and I was guilty of it myself to a certain degree and I just think that Until we can, you know, start having those conversations that house democracy possible without a conversation Absolutely, uh, steve arill Um, the best look in slago, uh, something is still available for the show now It's a fully seated solo acoustic Concert and that's at the notnery arena. This is at the atu in slago and it is the next wednesday night the 20th Good luck in slago. Good luck with the rest of the tour. Pleasure to chat to you steve That's good talk to you You know that guy I've been seeing. Yeah Turns out my sister's been seeing him too. Oh, really? And I heard he's been seeing sheva