Steve Earle and the Dukes bring 30th anniversary tour to Newton

NEWTON — Steve Earle & The Dukes bring their Guitar Town 30th Anniversary Tour to The Newton Theatre on Saturday, Dec. 3, at 8 p.m..
Steve Earle & the Dukes will perform "Guitar Town", his No. 1 debut record, in its entirety, as well as a full set of music spanning all of Steve's catalogue. Known for music often called “outlaw country”, with a mix of rock, country, and roots, Steve’s work has been critically acclaimed since the beginning.
Earle grew up in Texas during the 1960s and 70s. He saw artists like Freddy King, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Johnny Winter, Jimmy and Stevie Vaughn, Canned Heat and Billy Gibbons. His biggest inspiration was Townes Van Zandt, who is among the most widely admired and influential Texas songwriters.
Steve Earle released Guitar Town in 1986. He became the “new face” of outlaw country. He put out a near unbroken string of instant classics, including chart hits like Guitar Town, Someday, and the immortal Copperhead Road.
Then he just up and disappeared, dropped from sight for four years, making no records, playing no shows. Many thought he was dead. Steve had spent his famous “hiatus” in the early 1990’s mostly shooting dope. It was a crazy, unprecedented thing.
After a 60-day stint in the Davidson County Jail, he was firmly in recovery and on the way back. He’d released a couple new discs, the masterly acoustic Train A Comin’ and the defiantly electric I Feel Alright. But you could tell, he wasn’t all the way back. Clean and sober can be a transitory thing, the ghosts of the old days are far from fully vanquished, if they ever will be.
Earle has been divorced seven times from six different women. The odd thing is that out of the dozens of tremendous tunes he has written over the past 35 years very few have been break-up songs. Asked about it, Earle couldn’t even think of one himself. “I don’t want to waste songs on girls that are going. I’d rather save them for girls that are coming,” he said.
“I’m still alone, so I’m thinking maybe that’s just the way its gonna be for me. I’m still an optimist but like I don’t have a lot of optimism about current politics, maybe I have less about relationships. That’s what I’m telling myself right now, anyway. I’m feeling pressed for time. I’m going to be 60 years old. I’ve got a four-year-old son. I have no idea how things are going to turn out for him. I have to make sure he’s kind of set up. My father died when he was 74. I’ll probably outlive him but you know, you just want to make it all count.”
“I’m patient, but I’m focused. There’s a lot to do. I’d like to write a musical, I’m working on a country record. I think a lot people this age feel like this. And if there’s one thing I know about songwriting, it doesn’t matter if it’s a love song, a song for my kid, or about an issue, something I saw on TV – people don’t care what I think about it, what they do care about is what experiences we have in common. As a songwriter, that’s where I want to go, to touch that place between me and you.”
Tickets for Steve Earle & The Dukes range from $39.00 to $54.00. Purchase tickets by visiting www.thenewtontheatre.com or contact the Box Office at 973-383-3700.