Steve Earle concert a mixed vocal bag

Steve Earle has always done things his way. So the American rock, country and folk singer-songwriter brought his own sound technician to Kelowna Community Theatre on Thursday night.

The result was a mixed vocal bag: at times crystal clear, at times, only ardent Earle fans could fathom the lyrics.

The tour, now in its end stages, celebrates the 30th anniverary of his classic Copperhead Road album which mixed lyrical folk music with hard rock and Irish musical styles, thanks to guest artist, The Pogues at the London, UK recording studio.

So Earle and his five-piece band The Dukes, performed its 10 songs exactly in the same order as the original vinyl record, leading off with the country bluegrass title track which had the sold-out theatre abuzz from the opening violin notes.

From that moment, though, the sound quality deteriorated with such heavy emphasis on the instruments that Earle’s distinctive growl was just that, a growl with a discerning listener picking up a word here and there.

Yet, his colourful stories were easily understood and appreciated. When he started rehearsing the landmark album, Earle said he realized the second half was all “chick songs maybe why I got married so many times in the 1980s.”

The song Once You Love was the result of his Eldorado not starting when he and songwriting buddy Larry Crane (John Mellencamp’s band) wanted to make a beer run so Earle used a payphone to call a taxi (talk about dating himself) and bought a brand-new Buick.

The beautiful album closer, Nothing But A Child, was a Christmas song written for the Oak Ridge Boys but never performed by the other band.

Earle launched into new material with Outlaw from his most recent work, the 2017 album So You Wanna Be An Outlaw, and went back to 1986 for Guitar Town, a Top 10 country hit from his first full-length breakthrough album of the same name.

But Earle didn’t include Goodbye’s All We Got Left, the second Top 10 hit from that album in 1987.

However, he promised that his 17th studio album would be followed by a much more political effort in early 2020 following the recent recording of 16 Guy Clark songs in five days. Clark is one of the most celebrated country songwriters of all time.

The latter album’s release is scheduled for March 2019.

Earle’s vocals were also crystal clear during his political monologue, tailored to his Canadian audience with a plea: “Don’t try to be Americans; don’t forget to be Canadians; you are headed in a much better direction.”

That errant sound quality was most evident following the opening act, The Mastersons.

The vocal harmonies of guitarist-vocalist Chris Masterson and his violinist wife, Eleanor Whitmore, were crystal clear.

“We’ve got 30 minutes to make you love us,” joked Masterson. It didn’t take that long. And then, the couple performed with Earle as part of The Dukes.

Thursday’s concert was in sharp contrast to Earle’s performance at then-Skyreach (now Prospera) Place many, many years ago. He appeared either drunk or stoned or both. That said, he needs to let local sound technicians familar with Kelowna Community Theatre’s acoustics handle that responsibility.

Next album promotion tour.