Chords for Texas Legend: Steve Earle

[E] _ [B] _ _ _ [E] [Am] Hi, I'm Andrew Anderson of [A#] Jerry's Chevrolet in Weatherford, Texas, and [E] we're proud supporters
of Texas music.
So it's our pleasure to present this week's Texas Legend here on the Texas Music Scene.
Our Texas Legend this time is the [Bm] rarely understated and highly talented Steve Earle.
From [A] Guitar Town to Copperhead Road and back again, Steve has had quite an influence on
many of the young Texas red dirt artists, as you'll see right here.
Steve Earle is one of our bigger influences.
I think anybody in this scene that's our age or right around this age is [F#m] pretty [A] influenced by Steve.
[D] He's [F#m] recorded some of the really cool, groundbreaking [A] country rock records [E] of our generation.
I remember listening to [D] him when I was like 12 years old and just thinking, [A] like, this is it.
There's nothing cooler out there than this.
[E] He's kind of a guy that, I think he was the [D] youngster in the group [F#m] coming up with Towns
and Guy Clark and all those guys.
And [E] it's really [A#] cool, I think, [A]
getting to look back on the music [F#m] that he's made, being
both a peer to those guys but also [A] influenced by them.
But I mean, I don't know, he's just a guy that's made, I think, really relevant records
from the beginning, whether it's [F#] Train to Come and [D]
Chorus Zone.
[F#] But even [A] up through everything [E] going on, he's so politically active, [D] I think, that he's
[A] still has something to say, he's [D] still making great records.
[E] He's political on one [D] end and he's [A] just real on another.
He has that way with words and [E] his songs make you think.
And [A]
the album Train to Come, I remember going to Waterloo [D] Records and asking [A] people back
there, [E] I said, I need to get a Steve [A] Earle song.
All my friends are listening to him and I don't know any of his songs.
What should I get?
They [D] said, Train to [E] Come.
I got it.
[A] And on the album is a song called The Mercenary Song.
And [D] _ [A] I don't know if he's a big, voracious reader or he just knows things, but he's able
to take pieces of history and write about them in a really interesting and glorious way.
I sat down for myself for once and started writing this song and I was just like, man,
this is going to be an amazing song.
It's called I've Never [Gm] Been So Much in Love.
[G] It talks about still water [Am] girls and just I've never been so much in [D] love.
And I played it out [Am] live a couple of times, a [G] handful of times.
And one of my buddies that I used to live with said, man, that sounds a lot like [Am] I Ain't Ever Satisfied.
[G] Well, [D] I listened to a version of my song and [E] back to back with that [Em] song.
And it was exactly, it wasn't [G] similar.
It was exactly that [C] song.
And so that's how much of an influence Steve Earle [G] was on my writing.
And I haven't played it since, but [Em] he's for sure an influence in my writing.
[F] There's a lot of other people that influenced Steve Earle to get him to where he was.
And then I think [C] him and a couple [D] of guys around that 1986 era that [G] came out at that time.
Lyle Lovett had a record out and Rodney [Em] Crowell and [G] Steve and Dwight.
Yeah, they called it the class [D] of 86.
[Am] But those half [G] a dozen records that came out that year were, I think, probably huge on
everybody in this scene.
He is a lot of fun.
[D] He will talk your ear off, but he's got great stories.
[G] He told this story about him and Townes when they were living together in [C] Nashville.
[D] They used to catch snakes, [C] poisonous [G] snakes, copperheads and rattlesnakes, and take them
to the local [D] university because they were doing a [G] study on venom.
And they'd get like 10 or 12 bucks [D] per snake, and then they'd go buy liquor [G] with it.
But they lost one of the snakes in the [D] back of the [Em] trunk.
They had them all in a [Bm] pillowcase.
Anyway, they found it about a week later.
[C] I met Steve Earle the first year I moved to Nashville.
[G] And I was a struggling songwriter, [Em] and he was a little further ahead of me [Bm] on the food
chain, and I didn't know it, but I was standing [C] in line for [D] Chinese food at this little hole
in the wall [G] joint for lunch.
And there was a guy who was standing in front of me, and he was [D] wearing boots just like
I was, and he just looked like he was from Texas.
[G] And he kind of said something when I was trying to get a menu.
And his accent just totally gave [Am] him away.
I was like, man, where are you from?
He goes, I'm [D] from Selma.
And I was like, I'm from Del Rio.
[D] And he introduced himself to me, and we stood in line.
And by the time we got [G] to the counter, he realized that I [C] didn't have a [D] publishing deal.
And he did, [G] and he bought me lunch [D] and [G] tore [D] off the back of the Chinese [G] food thing and
gave me his phone number.
[C] [D] Steve Earle was a huge influence on [G] me when I was growing up and just starting [C] to write songs.
[D] My dad introduced me to him [G] and the Guitar Town record.
And [C] I listened to [D] that thing until the tape broke [G] and then got another one and broke it, too.
[C] And [D] he's been one of those guys that he's been able to move [G] around with different stuff.
He's gone political, and he does the [C] Broken Heart [D] songs [G] and the On the Road tunes and
just all of [D] that.
He's [C] really been [E] a huge influence [G] to me.
I love [E] that country rock that he's had behind his music since day one.
He's somebody I truly respect.
I went to see him in concert once, and [G#m] he was exactly what [A] everybody said he was going to be.
[E] [B] He did what he wanted to [E] do.
He did it beautifully.
And whenever somebody yelled out for him to play a song, he would stop and flip them [A] off
and ask them if they wanted [B] to leave and say, [C#m] did you write the songs?
Did you make the set [A] list?
Then shut up.
And [C#m] that was pretty much what everybody said he was [A] going to do, and [B] I thought it was kind of cool.
[E] He went on and everybody cheered, and the guy that made the noise, people were [F#] hitting him on the back of the head
telling him to shut up.
And [E] so [A] Steve Earl, man, [E] don't want to mess with that guy.
_ [E] Stay with us, folks.
We've got more Texas music right here on Texas Music Scene right after this. _ _ _