1 Christmas In Washington
2 Taneytown
3 If You Fall
4 I Still Carry You Around
5 Telephone Road
6 Somewhere Out There
7 You Know The Rest
8 N.Y.C.
9 Poison Lovers
10 The Other Side Of Town
11 Here I Am
12 Ft. Worth Blues

From Amazon.com

The album I keep coming back to

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I'm a big Steve Earle fan and I like all his albums but this is the one I come back to first when I want to hear some Steve Earle music. Every song is great and every song is different.

Starting and ending with softer acoustic pieces (Christmas in Washington and Ft. Worth Blues, respectively), the songs in between run the gamut between the raucous N.Y.C. (with the Supersuckers) and Here I Am to the muscular Taneytown (with Emmylou Harris) and If You Fall to the bluegrass I still carry you around (with the Del McCoury band) to the traditional (including the sound of vinyl record scratches at the end) country song, The Other Side of Town. The rest of the songs (Telephone Road, Somewhere Out There, You Know the Rest, Poison Lovers) are also great.

He always puts a smile on my face..

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: It has all been said before, Steve Earle makes the best music around. I've been a huge fan since "Guitar Town".

Within the random sequence, there IS a theme...

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: And that theme is the fact that when it comes to matters of the heart (hence the title of the record), feelings come out in random dribs and drabs. Be it political (Christmas In Washington), social (Taneytown), or love (I Still Carry You Around, Poison Lovers, If You Fall), or paying tribute to a friend and mentor (Fort Worth Blues), all of these are matters of the heart, which come out in random, sometimes messy statements of song.

This is why you hear a record containing folk-rock, old-school country-music, rock and roll, and a genre I can only describe as a music that is a love-child of country and garage rock (i.e. Here I Am).

It may not be as "unified" as his record before this (I Feel Alright), but it is the disarray that makes this record shine.

A recording that matters.

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: There is a variety on this recording that very few artists could pull off.
But Steve Earle makes this work and you never think twice about it. An incredible recording that has not aged at all. This record belongs on the
high shelf in your collection.

You Know The Rest

 Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)

Review Comments: I have to say that Steve Earle ranks right up there with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty as one of America's best songwriters, although he tends to be a bit darker than the others. I know that Steve Earle approached writing and recording "Transcendental Blues" in hopes of it being his "Sgt. Pepper's," but I believe that he already had it with "El Corazon." This CD is a musical masterpiece. Steve Earle sings and plays with more honesty, depth, heart, and soul than anyone in the industry. You have to respect and appreciate him for that.
One more thing about Steve Earle, I thought of a decent new name for his band. How about Steve Earle & The Lonesome Highway Blues Band? Somehow it seems fitting for the man.