Listening: Steve Earle

a bad, bad man.
Originally uploaded by grb3000.

If Chuck Norris did a roundhouse kick in righteous anger at the exact moment that Johnny Cash was smashing his guitar in indignant outrage and the two forces collided, the resulting cosmic blast of bitter, bearded, brokenhearted manhood, would spontaneously generate Steve Earle and the three albums he wrote, recorded and produced between the years of 1995 and 1997.

Earle dropped out of school at the age of fourteen and hit the road. By the age of 40 he had been married six times to five different women. He once helped a friend beat his alcohol addiction by tying him to a tree.

After experiencing some moderate success in the country music industry, Earle moved to the bad side of Nashville where he listened to Dr. Dre's the Chronic and dealt drugs for a few years, mostly homeless. Eventually he did find a nea home along with an orange jumpsuit with numbers on the back.

The liner notes of the album he recorded after his reales from prison say this: "When I was locked up I was getting ready to go off on this boy that stole my radio. My partner Paul asked me where I was going. I said "to get my radio-and then go to the hole for a little while". He looked at me like I look at my 13 year old son sometimes and said "No you aint'. You're gonna sit your little white ass down and do your little time and then you;re gonna get out of here and make me a nice record". So, I made two.

Here are some Lyrics: Now he's standin' at hell's door
With a bad attitude and a forty-four
The devil said, "What's up man
Now what you come here for?"
He said, "Man, let's just get to it"
He said, "I always heard that you were the bad one
There's a few places I ain't been, a few things I ain't done
You got your pitchfork and I got my gun"
Someone's gotta do it


If you never purchase and listen to a Steve Earle album in your life, he will probably not find out about it and come to your house to knock your teeth out with a wrench. But you should probably familiarize yourself with his music just to be safe.

the answer to everything

No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem. Why do we go? Because there is a greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self... The point is this: We were made to know and treasure the glory of God above all things; and when we trade that treasure for images, everything is disordered. The sun of God's glory was made to shine at the center of the solar system of our soul. And when it does, all the planets of our life are held in their proper orbit. But when the sun is displaced, everything flies apart. The healing of the soul begins by restoring the glory of God to its flaming, all-attracting place at the center. - John Piper