Steve Earle’s four MCA albums remastered for vinyl

Steve Earle’s four MCA Records studio albums, Guitar Town, Exit 0, Copperhead Road and The Hard Way, have been remastered from the original tapes by Robert Vosgien and cut for vinyl by Ron McMaster at Capitol Mastering for LP release on May 6th.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, 1986’s Guitar Town was Steve Earle’s album debut, which propelled him into the charts and across the airwaves. The album hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart and garnered two GRAMMY Award nominations for Earle: Best Male Country Vocalist and Best Country Song for the album’s title track, which reached No. 7 on Billboard’s Country Singles chart. Certified Platinum in Canada and Gold in the U.S., Guitar Town also features “Goodbye’s All We Got Left,” which peaked at No. 8 on the Country Singles chart, as well as “Hillbilly Highway” and Someday.”

“Guitar Town was his first shot at showing a major audience what he could do, and he hit a bull’s-eye — it’s perhaps the strongest and most confident debut album any country act released in the 1980s.” – AllMusic.com

Released in 1987, Earle’s follow-up album, Exit 0, was recorded with his touring band, The Dukes. The album hit the Top 20 of Billboard’s Country Albums chart and earned Earle two more GRAMMY nominations: Best Male Country Vocal Performance for the album and Best Country Song for “Nowhere Road.” Another single from the album, “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied,” made the Top 25 of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.

Copperhead Road followed in 1988, achieving what Earle has described as a blend of heavy metal and bluegrass, and what Rolling Stone dubbed “power twang.” The album’s guest artists include The Pogues on “Johnny Come Lately,” Strength In Numbers’ Sam Bush (mandolin), Jerry Douglas (dobro), Mark O’Connor (violin), and Edgar Meyer (bass violin) on “Nothing But A Child,” Bill Lloyd of Foster & Lloyd on acoustic guitar, and guest vocalists including singer/songwriter Maria McKee and John Cowan of New Grass Revival. Time magazine praised Copperhead Road, saying Earle “takes long chances with big themes…and does them proud.” The album peaked at No. 7 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart, and went triple-Platinum in Canada and Gold in the U.S.

Earle was again joined by The Dukes for 1990’s The Hard Way, the last album he released before a “hiatus” that stretched into four troubled years away from the studio and the stage. The aptly-titled album was recorded in Nashville as Earle was struggling with severe drug addiction. Earle later told an interviewer, “I defend The Hard Way to the death, because I almost died in the process of making it.” In 2015, the album’s “When The People Find Out” was used as the end credits music for the HBO miniseries, Show Me a Hero, written by David Simon and William F. Zorzi and directed by Paul Haggis.

An expanded 30th Anniversary Edition of Guitar Town will be released this fall in 2 CD and digital audio packages. Details will be announced.

Guitar Town

1. Guitar Town
2. Goodbye’s All We’ve Got Left
3. Hillbilly Highway
4. Good Ol’ Boy (Gettin’ Tough)
5. My Old Friend The Blues
6. Someday
7. Think It Over
8. Fearless Heart
9. Little Rock ‘N’ Roller
10. Down The Road

Exit 0

1. Nowhere Road
2. Sweet Little ’66
3. No. 29
4. Angry Young Man
5. San Antonio Girl
6. The Rain Came Down
7. I Ain’t Ever Satisfied
8. The Week Of Living Dangerously
9. I Love You Too Much
10. It’s All Up To You

Copperhead Road

1. Copperhead Road
2. Snake Oil
3. Back To The Wall
4. The Devil’s Right Hand
5. Johnny Come Lately
6. Even When I’m Blue
7. You Belong To Me
8. Waiting On You
9. Once You Love
10. Nothing But A Child

The Hard Way

1. The Other Kind
2. Promise You Anything
3. Esmeralda’s Hollywood
4. Hopeless Romantics
5. This Highway’s Mine (Roadmaster)
6. Billy Austin
7. Justice In Ontario
8. Have Mercy
9. When The People Find Out
10. Country Girl
11. Regular Guy
12. West Nashville Boogie
13. Close Your Eyes

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com