Steve Earle and the Dukes “Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator”

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#297 in the Series, and #21 in the Live, Saturday Night Series) is Steve Earle and the Dukes, Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator.

Steve Earle kicked off his career with two “4-Star”- country-rock, Americana, singer-songwriter styled albums. Then he decided to change his band and resurfaced with a bit of a harder sound.  That sound was evident on Copperhead Road and also on The Hard Way.  This live album was released from recordings of that tour.

I loved those first two albums and was quite glad that a good chunk of them are represented here. We needed some good live versions of “Guitar Town, Someday, Good Ol’ Boy (Gettin’ Tough), I Ain’t Ever Satisfied, Fearless Heart” etc.  I guess you can say that he didn’t forget the early stuff.

Songs from the third and fourth albums are of course included here as well. It wouldn’t be a representation of Steve’s early 90’s sound without including “I’m The Other Kind, Snake Oil” and of course, the previously mentioned, “Copperhead Road.”

Like many good concerts, he also pulls out a couple great encore tunes. I’ve heard many bands use “Dead Flowers,”  but it’s the first encore song that really excited me!  How ‘bout a rockin’ version of the Sir Douglas Quintet classic, “She’s About a Mover.” Doug Sahm was so darn good!

Little did we know that it would be four years from this release until we’d hear again from Steve.  Thankfully he left us in good hands. And also thankfully, Steve was in good hands during that time as well.

Track listing

All songs written by Steve Earle unless otherwise noted.

1. “Intro” – 0:53
2. “Good Ol’ Boy (Gettin’ Tough)” – 4:23 (Earle, Richard Bennett)
3. “Devil’s Right Hand” – 3:06
4. “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied” – 4:07
5. “Someday” – 3:54
6. “West Nashville Boogie” – 7:25
7. “Snake Oil” – 3:02
8. “Standin’ on the Corner [Blue Yodel No. 9]” – 1:36 (Jimmie Rodgers)
9. “The Other Kind” – 5:35
10. “Billy Austin” – 7:08
11. “Copperhead Road” – 4:34
12. “Fearless Heart” – 4:36
13. “Guitar Town” – 3:36
14. “I Love You Too Much” – 5:37
15. “She’s About a Mover” – 4:14 (Doug Sahm)
16. “The Rain Came Down” – 4:50 (Earle, Michael Woody)
17. “Dead Flowers” – 8:15 (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards)

Personnel

• Steve Earle – lead vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, 6 string bass, mandolin

The Dukes

• Bucky Baxter: steel guitar, electric and acoustic guitars, 6 string bass
• Zip Gibson: electric guitar, background vocals
• Kelly Looney: bass, background vocals
• Stacey Earle Mims: background vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion
• Ken Moore: keyboards
• Craig Wright: drums
• Kurt Custer: background vocals on “Fearless Heart”

Links

• See other album from 1991 that we’ve featured.
• Official Steve Earle Wesbsite
• Listen to full album on the ‘Cool Album’ MySpace page.