The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will feature Steve Earle in the next installment of its in-depth interview series Poets and Prophets. The series features songwriters who have made significant contributions to country music. The program will take place on Saturday, Dec. 20, at 2:30 p.m. in the museum’s Ford Theater and is included with museum admission.
One of American roots music’s most enduring and influential artists, Earle is a singer-songwriter, producer, author, playwright, radio host, actor and activist. His expansive catalog includes songs recorded by Joan Baez, the Highwaymen, Miranda Lambert, Kathy Mattea, Bob Seger and Country Music Hall of Fame members Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless and Ricky Skaggs. In 1974, at age 19, Earle hitchhiked from San Antonio to Nashville, where he quickly joined a group of fellow bohemian Texas expats that included his mentor, the songwriting giant Guy Clark. After a decade as a staff writer for various song-publishing companies, Earle signed with MCA Records. His debut album, Guitar Town, was released in 1986 to rousing critical acclaim and included two Top 10 hits. Never one to be confined by genre, Earle continued to push boundaries with the subsequent albums Exit 0, Copperhead Road and The Hard Way. Following a four-year hiatus in the early 1990s, a newly sober Earle launched an impressive comeback and fertile creative period. In 1996, he cofounded the E-Squared label and released six intensely personal, wide-ranging and critically praised albums in eight years, including The Mountain, a bluegrass set recorded with the Del McCoury Band.
Earle has made 22 studio albums, written a book of short fiction, a novel and a play, and produced 11 albums for other artists, including Lucinda Williams’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. He is the host of the “Hardcore Troubadour” radio show, has appeared in several films and has had recurring roles on two HBO series, “The Wire” and “Treme.” Earle has won three Grammys for Best Contemporary Folk Album, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020 and joined the Grand Ole Opry in September.
The interview will be moderated by Museum Writer-Editor Allison Moorer and will be accompanied by photos, film and recordings. After the program, Earle will sign commemorative Hatch Show Print posters.
The program is included with museum admission and free to museum members. Seating is limited, and a program ticket is required for admittance. Purchase tickets here.
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