Folk singer and rabble-rouser Steve Earle hits Taxi

You really have to work hard to misunderstand Steve Earle: He’s one of folk and alternative country’s most outspoken performers — and, some might say, a professional troublemaker or, even, political agitator.
He does not evade questions or mince words, whether he’s talking about the driving habits of folks in Greater Boston (“They drive like taxi drivers in Mexico City,” he says, “and that’s some of the worst driving I’ve ever seen in the world.”) or his beloved — and currently third-place —Yankees (“My sister lives in Boston, so I have to deal with that crap from my brother-in-law whenever I come to town,” he says. I’m in a good place. Earle, who performs Aug. 15 at the Theater at Newburyport High School in his first-ever North Shore show, is furiously animated, and apocalyptic in his language, when discussing the current election, saying the United States is completely polarized and unable — or unwilling — to declare what it wants to be in the future, which translates into whether there will be a future.
“It’s my job,” he says.
Musical school of hard knocks
Earle broke through with “Guitar Town,” his first album, which was a critical and popular success. The follow-up albums “Exit 0” and “Copperhead Road” built on that foundation
The latter included “John Walker Blues,” a song that looked at — and some say celebrated — the so-called American Taliban, John Walker Lindh. “Washington Square Serenade,” which won the 2008 Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album, is something completely different, or so it seems at first blush. It opens with “Tennessee Blues,” updating the title track of Earle’s 1986 debut, and establishes the sense of another fresh start. The album closes with a frightening cover of Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole.” Compared with “Revolution” and “Jerusalem,” it is a happier musical document, one that reflects his current situation: happily (and newly) married and settled down in Greenwich Village — a spiritual home, of sorts. He lives in the exact iconic location pictured on the “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” album, and, unseen but far more dangerous for Earle, is what the singer-songwriter describes as “the best guitar store in New York.”

But, no, Earle hasn’t lost his political edge, even on this much-happier album. In “Steve’s Hammer,” a song dedicated to folk icon Pete Seeger, Earle looks to a future when “ the air don’t choke you, and the ocean’s clean / And the kids don’t die for gasoline.”
And in “City of Immigrants,” he takes on hot-button issues like legislating English as a national language and what he says is an inherent racism behind calls for rougher immigration policy. “I don’t define myself as a political songwriter. I’ve written unapologetically political albums in the past. This time I’ve written an unapologetically personal album.”
But the thing that distinguishes “Washington Square Serenade” from other Earle albums, aside from its loving embrace of life and love itself, is the production, which includes beats and other hip-hop effects, laid down by producer — and former Dust Brother — John King, who has also produced the Beastie Boys and Beck.
About half the songs on the album use hip-hop technology. The rest are straight folk. On the current tour, he’s performing solo, mostly — he’s using turntablist Neil McDonald producing the beats. The reaction has been pretty good — no Dylan-at-Newport-circa-1966 calls of apostasy or sell-out. But will the beats become a permanent part of Earle performances?
Hard to say.
The next album will be a collection of tunes by the influential, and difficult-to-characterize, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, “which I think I can handle myself,” says Earle. “Who knows?” says Earle.

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