Steve Earle

So it looks like Steve Earle finally caved in and started writing songs about how great America is...yeah right! Earle returns from the controversial "John Walker's Blues" swinging and singing. His Texas-toned Americana exudes waltzing melodies and moving narrative rockers that would send Michael Moore dancing in the streets.

The cliche is that rockers don't make protest music like they used to. Maybe that's because
they turn it out too slowly. Steve Earle's roiling The Revolution Starts . . . Now shows how
rousing, angry songs can spring from the one-take heat of a recording session. An
unrepentant anti-careerist, Earle was emboldened by the controversy surrounding his 2002
terrorist portrait "John Walker's Blues." Here he takes dead aim at Iraq and war,... More >

The title's poetic license, the artist half a poet at best ("Condi, Condi," "The Gringo's Tale"). (Grade - **)