MICHAEL STAHL, portraitsbymichaelstahl.com
Steve Earle at The Outpost in the Burbs in Montclair, on Nov. 8.
Steve Earle has always cited Bruce Springsteen as one of his main musical influences. And at his Nov. 8 “Songs & Stories” show at The Outpost in the Burbs in Montclair (see review HERE), he told two stories about Springsteen that I thought were interesting enough to do a separate post about.
The first came when he was talking about the years before his first album, Guitar Town, came out in 1986.
I was getting pretty close to desperate. And then a guy named Noel Fox … he ran a publishing company called Silverline/Goldline. Silverline/Goldline belonged to The Oak Ridge Boys. Noel had been the bass singer of The Oaks before they went secular and got rich … he came back to The Oaks to run their publishing company, and he was a song guy. … He signs me and tells me to go write an album. And I said, “Noel, I don’t have a record deal.” And he said, “I know that. Just go write an album. The rest’ll take care of itself.” And I wasn’t sure I believed him. But then, you know, I was too broke to pay attention, and I was in danger of missing a Bruce Springsteen tour for the first time ever. And a friend of mine … had an extra ticket, and we went out to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and we saw Bruce Springsteen & the E Street band. Bruce walked out and opened with “Born in the USA.” And it was like a light bulb that goes off above those guys’ heads in the cartoons. And I went home, and I commenced to write myself an album.
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performed at The Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro on Dec. 9, 1984.
Earle’s Guitar Town album came out in March 1986. The first single, “Hillbilly Highway,” got some play on country radio, as did the second single, “Guitar Town.” But album sales were slow, and the record company didn’t seem that interested in promoting it, according to Earle. And then, as he said in Montclair:
Bruce Springsteen walked into a record store in Hollywood, and he bought two albums. He bought Willie DeVille’s first solo album, and he bought “Guitar Town.” And he told people, when he was asked about it, that he just liked the cover, which was flattering because it’s just a picture of me. But I have it on pretty good authority that Garry Tallent told him about it, and that’s why he bought it, because I already knew Garry by that time. But Bruce bought it, the kid that sold it to him called a friend of his at Billboard magazine, and the next week that kid put it in his column that Bruce had bought the record. And I sold 35,000 records that week, and I got booked on “The Tonight Show.”
Earle also performed at the Nebraska tribute show that took place at The Outpost in the Burbs in May 2023 (read my review HERE) and has covered several Springsteen songs over the years. Here are a few related videos:
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