‘Bound for New York City, and I won’t be back no more … Goodbye, Guitar Town,” Steve Earle announced in the opening lines of the first track on his 12th album.

Sure enough, “Washington Square Serenade” found the 53-year-old singer-songwriter trading Nashville for the Big Apple, embracing life with new wife and fellow musician Allison Moorer and exploring an exciting new sound equally reliant on acoustic guitars and computer programming.

I caught up with the always outspoken musician, actor (most recently seen on “The Wire”), talk-radio host, novelist, playwright and reformed drug addict in the midst of a tour that brings him and Moorer to Chicago tonight.

Q. It’s been a while since we’ve talked, Steve.

A. Well, I just went the longest I’ve gone without making a record since my drug vacation in the ghetto!

Q. So, were you going through withdrawal from the recording studio?

A. No, and some of it was pure circumstances: I changed record labels, I changed managers, I moved to New York and I got married. It was probably time to reboot; I’d made a lot of records and toured constantly since I got out of jail [in 1994]. When I moved to New York, I kind of had to rethink everything, and that was good — it was a really natural and organic kind of thing.

My recording process had become where pre-production was just soundcheck: The last few records had been with the Dukes, and you just start writing for the band, running things down at soundcheck and then recording them between tours. I really needed to not do that this time. I really wanted to keep everybody else’s fingerprints off the songs.

Q. So you found this different way of recording, working with programmed drum loops and digital backing tracks?

A. Right. I’d become much more interested in playing acoustic guitar than electric guitar, and I’d been buying a lot of acoustic guitars. So it started with, at first, I just wanted to work by myself, and that meant working with Pro Tools and going out and buying a computer. Anyway, at first, I thought I was just making demos. But by a very natural, organic process, I started finding and working with these loops and just made them by own.

You know, I’ve always loved records like that, with a mix of electronics and organic instruments. It makes perfect sense to me, because I’ve always said the best hip-hop was folk music. It’s all about making music by yourself: You just buy this equipment and start pushing buttons without worrying about reading the manuals. That’s not that far away from law students with banjos in 1955, and now here I was living in the neighborhood where all that happened [in Greenwich Village]. Obviously, folk music has always been a huge part of who I am. I grew up with the Beatles and the Stones and that stuff, but also with the Harry Smith anthology and Woody Guthrie.

Q. Do you think Woody Guthrie would have used a sampler if he’d had one in the ’30s?

A. Absolutely! I think the biggest misconception about Woody Guthrie is that he was a politician. He was a professional entertainer who happened to live in really politically charged times and happened to become politicized.

Q. That brings me to the political question: We talked several times circa “Jerusalem” (2002) and “The Revolution Starts … Now” (2004), and I know you were frustrated because a lot of people kept asking, “When are you going to stop singing political songs and go back to stuff like ‘Guitar Town’ again?” Now, you’re playing more personal songs …

A. And yes, people are starting to ask me why I’m not singing about politics anymore! You got it! But you know, there are political songs on this record, just like there were political songs on “Copperhead Road” [1988]. I think it was just the times when I made “Jerusalem” and “The Revolution Starts … Now,” which admittedly are kind of part one and part two of the same record. We made “The Revolution Starts … Now” because I literally had two songs I wanted heard before the election, and I beat the deadline by a week. So the intention of those records may have been unapologetically political, but I don’t think this record is apolitical. “City of Immigrants” is pretty f—ing political, and “Steve’s Hammer” certainly is, too. This album is largely love songs for Allison Moorer in New York City. But I’ve never written a record that had no chick songs, and I’ve never written a record that had no political songs!

Q. There’s no easy way to ask this, Steve, so I’ll just say it: You’ve been married seven times to six different women, one of them twice. What makes you think this marriage to Allison is going to work?

A. Well, I got married a lot in the ’80s, but I haven’t been married in a long time. A lot’s changed. Allison and I spent the last three years syncing up our schedules so we can tour together. I always believed in marriage, and the reason I believed in it was that my parents stayed married until my father died, a couple of days after Christmas last year. I’m the oldest of five kids whose parents stayed together for 53 years, and I believed in it and still do. So I do believe we’re gonna make it this time, me and Allison.

Q. Is it difficult touring with your spouse?

A. It’s been some work, but it’s better than dealing with what you’d deal with if you were apart. So you just have to make allowances, but that’s good for you, to have to do things differently. Since we’ve been together, she’s written one record of all her own material, I’ve written one, she’s done preproduction on a record that’s mostly covers and I’ve got a novel that’s almost finished. It requires some thought, but I think that’s probably good for me and good for the marriage, because we’ve had to consciously make those adjustments.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/derogatis/830767,WKP-News-live07.article

Fred Mills  March 6, 2008 
Jordan Zevon—yes, the son of the late, eternally great Warren Zevon—is set to drop his debut album Insides Outon April 15 via New West Records/Ammal Records. It will feature nine Zevon originals plus a cover of his dad’s classic tune “Studebaker.”
According to the label, the powerpop-tilting album will suggest both Elvis Costello and the Attractions and XTC as well as Harry Nilsson and Steely Dan. “Insides Out starts things off with a bang with the immediate track ‘The Joke’s On Me.’ Jordan says of the influence for the song, ‘If you’ve never had a job from hell, it’s probably because we both interviewed and they gave it to me instead.’ And that’s just the beginning of an immensely catchy and superb collection of songs displayed on this debut. The album is an intriguing record that has many layers to be discovered on repeated listens [and] effortlessly showcases some of the smartest pop you’ll hear all year.
“While his dad’s music is certainly in his genes, [while growing up] Jordan tuned his radio to British power-pop bands such as XTC, The Cure and Elvis Costello. The subject even came up in conversation around the house. Jordan reminisces, ‘Dad once asked me why I was singing with a British accent and I replied, “Why do you sing with a southern accent? The only time you ever saw a chicken was when it was hovering beneath a pepper grinder!” After that he totally understood that we all have our own influences. No matter how good Dad was, he was still my Dad and you’re supposed to rebel against your parents.’” http://harpmagazine.com/news/detail.cfm?article=12361 

Writer: Christina HansenNews, Published online on 04 Mar 2008

The Old 97’s will release their latest album Blame It On Gravity May 13 on New West Records.Band members Rhett Miller, Murry Hammond, Ken Bethea and Philip Peeples self-recorded their debut album 15 years ago in their hometown of Dallas. Seven new albums, a greatest hits collection and a special two-disc live album later, the band decided to return to Dallas last year to record Blame It On Gravity, and enlisted producer Salim Nourallah to help re-create the sound of their debut.New West describes the Old 97’s new album as a mix of various elements from rock, punk, classic country and pop. The album’s first single, “Dance With Me,” is now available on the band’s MySpace page.No word on whether the band will be unveiling any new material when it performs at SXSW next week. The Old 97’s will hit the road again in May for a three-week nationwide club tour after Blame’s release (dates TBA.)

http://www.pastemagazine.com/action/article/6730/news/music/old_97s_release_single_place_blame

Fresh Air from WHYY, February 29, 2008 - Ray Davies, former singer/songwriter for The Kinks, joins Fresh Air’s Terry Gross to talk about his career with the ’60s rock band and his current solo career.

Davies’ rise to fame began with the release of The Kinks song “You Really Got Me.” The song was a success, but Davies says he initially struggled with his record label to record and release it.

“It wasn’t, I suppose, wholesome enough for the time — something that would be palatable for the radio,” he says. “Now it seems really innocent, and people say ‘What’s wrong with the lyric?’ But for then … there was still an element of polish about what everybody did, and The Kinks were a rough and ready outfit.”

The record label eventually relented and allowed the song to be recorded. It was a huge hit, taking The Kinks to the top of the charts. Throughout the band’s career, Davies says he tried to retain an R&B tone while producing pop music. On lyrics, he says he lets inspiration — rather than contemplation — be his guide.

“The secret is not to know it while you’re writing it,” he says. “I don’t intellectualize what I write, because I think my instinct is smarter than my actual being.”

In 1990, The Kinks were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a welcome show of appreciation from the music industry. But the achievement didn’t mark the end of Davies’ music career; in fact he’d begun recording solo albums some years before.

“I wanted to find the source of the music that inspired me when I first started out,” he says. “The country that made me want to pick up the guitar was America. It was American music.”

Much of his inspiration came from the American South. He moved to New Orleans so as to immerse himself in the musical atmosphere.

In Louisiana in 2004, he had a harrowing experience that nearly cost him his life.

“This was a sunny afternoon,” he says. “Late in the afternoon, guy came up with a gun, attacked us and stole my girlfriend’s bag. And I ran after him. I just had a bad day I think and this was just the topper. …You just never know until it happens to you I suppose, how a person reacts.”

Davies gave chase, almost catching the thief.

“I just didn’t feel it was right to be treated that way. … I just felt it was not right to let him get away with it. But I didn’t know there was a car waiting and a driver. I nearly caught him, and he stopped at the car and just turned around and shot me.”

Davies dove for cover, but took a bullet in the leg, breaking it. Davies says he eventually came to look on the incident as another incentive to continue recording — though he doesn’t recommend getting shot to songwriters looking for source material.

Davies’ latest solo album is called Working Man’s Cafe. He’s produced four other solo albums since 1985.