Washington Square Serenade

by Steve Earle

Overview

New York City has long been more than America's biggest and most fabled city -- it's a place that symbolizes fresh starts and new opportunities, and there are scores of songs and stories about folks pulling up roots and heading to the Big Apple in search of a better and more exciting life. Steve Earle wrote one such song on his 1997 album El Corazon, "NYC," in which a nervy kid from Tennessee hitchhikes to Manhattan because "there must be something happening, it's just too big a town," and a decade later Earle followed him, moving to New York to escape Red State malaise. Washington Square Serenade, Earle's 12th studio album and first in three years, deals in part with the sights and sounds of his new hometown, from the red-tailed hawk that lives in Central Park ("Down Here Below") to the multilingual chatter of the streets ("City of Immigrants"), while also taking a look back at the home he left behind on tunes like "Oxycontin Blues," "Red Is the Color," and "Jericho Road." While there's a strength in the familiar textures of the songs where Earle remembers Tennessee, there's a welcome sense of rejuvenation in the album's first half as he shares the details of his adventures in New York (which also includes a new bride, Allison Moorer, who lends lovely backing vocals to these sessions and is the presumable inspiration for "Sparkle and Shine" and "Days Aren't Long Enough"), and the expressionistic imagery of "Down Here Below" and "Satellite Radio" works beautifully in this context. After producing his last few album himself, Earle turned those chores over to Dust Brother John King for Washington Square Serenade, and King brings a welcome collision of the traditional and the contemporary to the music, facing scratchy drum loops against mandolins and dobros while letting a folky simplicity carry the day when it best suits the song, and the sound is crisp and forceful throughout. Washington Square Serenade ultimately sounds a bit less focused than its immediate predecessors, the politically minded Jerusalem and The Revolution Starts...Now (despite the presence of "Red Is the Color" and "Steve's Hammer"), but it also finds Earle trying out some new tricks both as a performer and a songwriter, and it's exciting and encouraging to hear him exploring fresh turf after two decades of record-making, and there's lots of fine music to be had on this set. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	11/26/2021
Label:	New West
UPC:	0607396555017
Rank:	81964

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Steve Earle   Primary Artist,Banjo
Forro in the Dark   Primary Artist,Guest Artist
Allison Moorer   Primary Artist,Guest Artist,Vocals
Charlie Stavish   Vocals (Background),Choir/Chorus
Josh Wilbur   Vocals (Background),Choir/Chorus
Petey   Vocals (Background)
John King   Vocals (Background),Choir/Chorus
Collin Hart   Vocals (Background),Choir/Chorus
Paul Bannister   Vocals (Background),Choir/Chorus
Lee Foster   Vocals (Background)
Noah Goldstein   Vocals (Background),Choir/Chorus
Davi Viera   Triangle
Downtown Proletariat Choir   Vocals (Background)
Patrick Earle   Vocals (Background),Percussion,Choir/Chorus
Smokey Hormel   Guitar (Baritone)
John Medeski   Organ,Harmonium,Mellotron,Piano (Electric)
Marty Beller   Drums
Jorge Continentino   Bamboo Flute
Mauro Refosco   Zabumba
Jeremy Chatzky   Bass (Acoustic),Bass (Electric)
John Spiker   Bass (Electric)

Technical Credits

Josh Wilbur   Audio Engineer,Engineer
Tom Camuso   Audio Engineer,Engineer
Noah Goldstein   Audio Engineer,Assistant Engineer
John King   Audio Production,Mixing,Producer
Steve Earle   Composer
Smokey Hormel   Group Member
Patrick Earle   Logistics
Jorge Continentino   Group Member
Mauro Refosco   Group Member
Tom Waits   Composer
Allison Moorer   Composer
Jim DeMain   Mastering
John Spiker   Programming
Tony Fitzpatrick   Cover Art
Alex McCollough   Mixing Assistant
Ted Barron   Photography
Dawn Hancock   Design