El Corazón

Steve Earle

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 7, 1997)
• Original Release Date: October 7, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002NIC
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #10,739 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Having watched him throw away the prime years of his career on smack and prison, Steve Earle fans were reassured by the singer's 1995 comeback, Train A Comin', where he reclaimed the past in exquisite acoustic arrangements. They were further encouraged by the 1996 followup, I Feel Alright, which staked out the present with rock & roll defiance. Their patient faith was rewarded with El Corazon, an album that no longer looks back at those lost years but looks forward to the rest of Earle's career. Combining the sheer beauty of Train A Comin' with the bristling energy of I Feel Alright, El Corazon plows new ground with Earle's most explicitly political song yet, his furthest leap into another character's voice, a hard-core bluegrass number with the Del McCoury Band, and a hard-core grunge rocker with the Supersuckers. Earle turns the Fairfield Four into the Jordanaires behind his Elvis vocal on "Telephone Road," and he imitates Townes Van Zandt's austere minimalism even as he sings an elegy to his late mentor on "Fort Worth Blues." All in all, these dozen tunes are the best songwriting Earle has produced since his 1986 breakthrough, Guitar Town, and he sings them with the take-it-or-leave-it authority of someone who has nothing left to prove. On the album's first and best song, "Christmas in Washington," he offers a mournful prayer to Woody Guthrie to come back and rescue us from an era of wishy-washy Democrats and ruthless Republicans; Earle sings it as if his prayer had been answered and the Okie troubadour's ghost had found a home in his belly. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best I've ever heard. Period., December 17, 2004

By	Lance Manyon (Memphis, TN, USA) - See all my reviews

For what it's worth, I think this is one of the greatest CDs ever made. I'm not a Steve Earle scholar, in fact I only own a few of his albums, but this one easily fits into my top ten ever.

There's not a clunker here. Ft. Worth Blues is beautiful, Telephone Road will make you want to go have a beer with friends, and NYC is one of most chill bump-inducing songs I've ever heard. This is the perfect blend of rock, country, and folk.

I'll put it this way: I've got a friend whose favorite artist is Prince. Another's is Rage Against the Machine, and another basically listens to pop music. They all agree that this is one of the best they've ever heard.

This is "real" music by a "real" person, and in my opinion, it doesn't get much better.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential Steve Earle recording, January 28, 2000

By	Rob Bovey (Edmonds, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Steve Earle is an amazing artist with at least half a dozen five-star releases to his name. Deciding which one to review was a tough choice. I picked El Corazón because it demonstrates the breadth of Earle's talent better than any other.

Earle has an almost encyclopedic grasp of American musical idioms. El Corazón covers the full breadth of this talent, ranging from the folk of 'Christmas in Washington', the rock of 'N.Y.C.', the bluegrass of 'I Still Carry You Around', the roots-country of 'The Other Side of Town' (a song which could easily pass as a Hank Williams cover), to the beautiful singer-songwriter styling of 'Ft. Worth Blues'.

As if the musical talent weren't enough, Steve Earle is one of the finest song writers in the business. Even if you don't agree with the leftist political sentiments he slips into many of his songs (or shovels, in the case of 'Christmas in Washington'), you'll find a depth and intelligence in Earle's lyrics that will surprise you, coming as it does from someone professing to be just a country boy.

Buy this CD and listen with an open mind. Pretty soon you'll be back for more.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars El Corazon full of heart!, January 13, 1999

By	Todd W. Smith "asburypark30" (Midway, KY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Steve Earle got out of prison and drug rehab, and returned in1996 with a brilliant comeback album I Feel Alright. I thought nothing could approach the greatness of that album, but Earle has released another stellar effort in El Corazon. I Feel Alright was a versatile record, but El Corazon is Earle's most diverse work yet. The album opens and closes with folk ballads, Christmas in Washington and Fort Worth Blues. In between , Steve varies from pure rock(NYC,If You Fall),to bluegrass(I Still Carry You Around), to bluesy swing(Telephone Road), and country(The Other Side of Town). Also included is a beautiful duet called Poison Lovers. It's hard to describe this song, other than to say it's artistically creative enough that it's hard to imagine anyone sitting down and writing it. If you love pure music and aren't interested in pigeonholing, you will thoroughly enjoy this incredibly talented musician's work. To say Earle is a gifted singer-songwriter is a massive understatement. This edgy record whets the appetite for what Steve will create in the 21st century and beyond.