Customer Reviews

Sidetracks

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me start by admitting I'm a Steve Earle nut. I was tempted to give this 5 stars just because anything he does is essential listening for me, but I think this one is a bit less cohesive than his last 5 CDs and, depending on your taste may have a few songs you'd like to skip. For me the 3 songs with Tim O'Brien and the Bluegrass Dukes are the best (Willin, Sarah's Angel and My Uncle). Some Dreams is a terrific pop song although not his best. The duet with Sheryl Crow on Time Has Come Today is terrific. I prefer the version of Ellis Unit One from Dead Man Walking, but this one is great and may grow on me. Creepy Jackelope Eye is an oddball hit. My Back Pages is terrific (Earle's description is accurate-the vocal is out of his range, but it works anyway). Breed sounds great. Me and the Eagle is one of his best songs, but, of course, I already knew that before I bought this CD. But overall the CD just doesn't hang together like Transcendental Blues, I Feel Alright, Train A Comin', El Corazon and The Mountain. This is his Odds and Sods or Taking Liberties, both great records I love, but don't rank among The Who's or Elvis Costello's best work. If you love Steve, buy it; if you don't know him too well, buy El Corazon or I Feel Alright or Transcendental Blues; if you like bluegrass, buy the Mountain and Train A Comin'; if you like country, buy Guitar Town. Once you've done that, if you're a fan, you'll want this one too.

Overshadowed by the controversy that surrounded Steve's "Jerusalem" album last year, this unassuming CD is a hidden gem. Essentially, it's a hodgepodge collection of B-sides and other assorted songs from the vault. But unlike most other albums of this kind, it's listenable from start to finish.

What the album lacks in cohesiveness, it makes up for in musicianship and enthusiasm. The CD blasts off with "Some Dreams," a defiant, rollicking country rocker that Steve wrote for the Dennis Quaid film, "The Rookie." In the song, Steve slyly reminds us that "some dreams don't ever come true... but some dreams do." And "Dominick St." and "Sara's Angel" are two joyous bluegrass instrumentals from the "Transcendental Blues" sessions.

Steve has a lot of fun with an eclectic array of covers, too. He injects a little twang and a lot of attitude in his cover of Nirvana's "Breed." Little Feat's "Willin'" is transformed into a easygoing bluegrass number. And Steve's emotional rendering of the Bob Dylan classic, "My Back Pages," closes the album gracefully.

About the only track that fails on any level is "Time Has Come Today," his duet with Sheryl Crow. The song itself is pretty good... a little more polished than usual for Steve, but enjoyable nonetheless. But the song inexplicably splices 60s-era speeches from Abbie Hoffman and others in the middle of verses that adds nothing to the song.

Overall, I highly recommend this collection to Steve's fans. Neophytes may be better served with other albums including "Transcendental Blues", "I Feel Alright" and "Guitar Town". Even so, fans and nonfans alike will have a lot of fun listening to this one. Enjoy!

As advertised, a compilation of tracks not intended to be presented together... is there a common thread? Earle picked 'em to hang together here... and they do. Not the way his last five or so disks do, in which each set is conceived thematically or stylistically... but as a document that pulls together many disparate pieces of the puzzle that is Earle. As a set, this compilation integrates many elusive essences of Earle: total fluency across many musical genres and styles, beautiful marriages of seeming contradictions, great musicianship, surprising and illuminating song selections, his film work, etc.

As such, this disk reveals a great deal about Earle... for example, five covers of 30-year old songs (give or take)... clearly formative years for Earle, tell us way more about him than we thought we already knew: Dylan's My Back Pages, Parsons/Hillman's My Uncle, The Slickers' Johnny Too Bad, Lowell George's Willin'... and most surprisingly (but appropriately) the Chambers Brothers' Time Has Come Today. This last one, with Cheryl Crow singing, is a total revelation/reinvention, complete with rants by Abbie Hoffman.

Yes some of these selections are available elsewhere... to the die-hard fan who seeks them out. But it's GREAT to have them here, selected by the master himself... a record of some great takes that almost got away.

If you are new to Earle start with some of his other disks, and you'll appreciate this one even more.

While all these tracks are from Steve's inspired period (from Train A-Comin' through Transcendental Blues), and therefore all of high quality, the only reason I did not rate this a full five stars is because I already own five of the tracks.

And though Earle's albums can be all over the map (El Corazon & Transcendental Blues), they still manage to create an amazing sense of continuity from track to track. Here, however, the nature of the collection provides for a mish mash of songs that are at times shocking in their sequencing.

That said, I love this album. It's great to hear his amazing cover of "Willin'" and "My Back Pages" (far superior to the soundtrack version, bad notes and all). I would have been happier to trade in the relatively easy to find "rarities" ("Me and the Eagle", "Johnny Too Bad", "Time Has Come Today", "Ellis Unit One" and "Creepy Jackalope Eye") for some more new tracks, live tracks, or demos. But that's nitpicking.

The collection reflects Steve's broad range and appeals more to true fans than the casual listener. It's probably not a good place for someone to start.

Steve Earle has a knack of putting together a "collection of songs" that comes off sounding more cohesive than most other folks' slaved-over studio albums.

No: this album isn't as powerfully driven by a unifying lyrical vision as a _Transcendental Blues_ or an _El Corazon_ (a couple of his albums that I listen to an inordinate amount), but I sure as heck don't mind hitting the "repeat CD" button when I've got this one in, either! Songs like "Some Dreams" and "Me and the Eagle" capture that "bangin' my head against the wall, but don't know any other way" worldview that makes Earle so accessible. The Fairfield Four's vocals on this version of "Ellis Unit One" creep under your skin and make a powerful addition to an already powerful song. And his liner notes are incredibly funny and make this an even more fun trip. If you can wrap your head/heart around the quirky yet solid variety of an album like _Train A'coming_ (hmmm: coincidence that his last "collection" was titled that?), you'll love _Sidetracks_.

If you're not already a friend of Earle's music, this may not make you one, but it'll definitely make you want to hear more.

I have only been a Steve Earle fan since "Trancedental Blues" and have been looking to go back and try some his older music. But then "Sidetracks " was released yesterday. Holy Cow!! If these are outtakes then I am not worthy of hearing the first rate stuff. His covers of "Time Has Come Today" and "Willin'" just knocked me out. The Little Feat's number is one of my all-tome favorite songs. Everything is done here from Jamaican to Celtic and all points in between. Give a special listen to "Some Dreams", "Me And The Eagle", "Ellis Unit One" and "My Uncle". Even the instrumentals are outstanding. If you like Lucinda Williams or John Hiatt you will love "Sidetracks" !

When an artist releases a collection of loose tracks it is usually of interest to only die-hard fans. That is not the case with Steve Earle's SIDETRACKS. While I would not say that this is up to the standards of his proper releases, anyhow there is plenty of treasure to experience here. Ellis Unit One with the Fairfield Four ranks with the best of Earle's songbook, with Me and the Eagle very close behind. Creepy Jackalope Eye, done with the Supersuckers is funny, infectious, can't get it out of my head song that adds comic releif to the proceedings. The rest of the material is good if not quite steller. This is a definite must for any Earle fan, and I could easily recommend it to anyone with a taste for good songwriting.

Steve Earle is my favorite songwriter. I have to buy anything he appears on, period. But for you not so familiar with Steve Earle, this is a cool record to get to see that he has many many different sides to his music and his songs. From serious (Elis Unit 1)to funny (Creepy Jackalope Eye), rock your face off (Nirvana's "Breed")-hillbilly, country, irish, regge-its all in there. It is not intented to be an "Album"-so don't look for a concept here, just a bunch of songs that may not hang together at all, but, stand up well on their own.

You may prefer to get one of his older recordings also, but be warned, his albums change complection all the time and you just never know for sure what style he's into-they are all good-great songs-this album is like a sampler of what Steve Earle is capable of. Buy it now!!!!!!!

Steve Earle obviously did not intend this collection of songs as a cohesive album. But, like every other album Steve Earle ever released, there are some classic moments. The high point of Sidetracks is the version of "Ellis Unit One" with the Fairfield Four. This is the definitive version of the song. I really liked the original on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack, but the Fairfield Four add an emotional charge to "Ellis Unit One" that even the original, as good as it was, did not have. Another outstanding song is "Me and the Eagle," although the reviewer who compared it to "Send In The Clowns" was way out in left field. It's also good to hear Steve Earle cover "Willin'," which actually is a thematic counterpart to "Me and the Eagle." Steve Earle's version compares favorably to the Byrds', and is much better than Linda Ronstadt's. Steve's version of Nirvana's "Breed" is a hoot, as well as a must-have for any Steve Earle fan. The only real throwaways are "Time Has Come Today" and "My Uncle," both songs that never should have seen the light of day. All in all, Sidetracks is a mixed bag. Still, there are some songs here that any Steve Earle fan will be happy to own.

The song "Me and the Eagle" is worth the price of the album alone. I'm amazed other artists have not picked up this song and recorded it themselves. It has a sort of epic feel and for the few minutes you listen to it, you're out there on the mountain with the guy in the song.

I can't wait for Jerusalem