Ghosts Sing Sad, Western Songs4 Out Of 5 Stars
"I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive" is Steve Earle's most mortal album in a discography that has shaken hands with darkness many a'time. According to his own liner notes, much of the album is written in response to the death of his father, but other forms of grievous loss play throughout the cycle. It begins with the anxious boy in a military town fearing the draft board ("Waiting for The Sky To fall") and ends with a tribute to New Orleans ("This City"). As per usual, Earle's gruff, passionate voice conveys a richness of emotion that has been his trademark since the days of "Copperhead Road."
I also enjoy the fact that he's taken some traditional folk/bluegrass forms to play with, like the highwayman who robs for his "Molly'O." or that he keeps his political bent on fore with "Little Emperor" and the Gulf Spill tragedy that follows a families ties to the ocean on "The Gulf Of Mexico." His wife Alison Moorer adds to an edgy duet called "Heaven Or Hell," which questions the origin of love. It's all done with the kind of production that T-Bone Burnette used to excel in, and for a change, Burnette doesn't bury Earle under a mountain of murk. The fact that most of the songs were recorded in a marathon single day session probably helped, but "Ill Never Get Out Of This World Alive" marks yet another terrific album from one of America's last great folksong singer/songwriters.
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