Blog: Tikun Olam: World Music

Steve Earle is one of America's great singer-songwriters. Townes Van Zandt was one of the greatest songwriters of his generation. In this week's N.Y. Times, I learned that for many years Van Zandt was Earle's mentor. For some reason, I'd never noticed the influence. Van Zandt's writing was intensely romantic and personal, shot through with melancholy. Every song was a ballad, sung slow and sparely. Earle's lyrics hit many of these notes, but he is an intensely political writer, where Van Zandt wasn't. Also, Earle's music style covers a lot more territory from up tempo rockers to slow, [...]