In an poetic piece of musical irony, less than 24 hours after Rihanna delivered a pair of Vancouver concerts that revealed plenty of skin and nothing about herself, the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival saw its headline performer bare everything at The Centre for Performing Arts.
Not literally of course. A buck-naked Steve Earle flapping about on stage would be newsworthy for all the wrong reasons. But over the course of nearly three hours the Godfather of alt-country delivered a show that ably demonstrated how his life and his art are one and the same.
There is no artifice with Steve Earle. What you see is what you get. And that's a scruffy, podgy, recovering addict with a brutal skullet (long at the back, bald at the front), a load of great country-rock songs and an immeasurable amount of charisma.
Musically, Earle isn't that different from the vast majority of country stars still adhering to the Hank Williams blueprint. It's the presentation and the lyrical content that sets him apart. There'll never be an apology for the absence of good ol' cowboy imagery in his look or music, and there'll never be an apology for the political content that runs through his work.
Earle is comfortable crashing in where others fear to tread. ‘Gulf of Mexico' tackles the BP Oil Spill. ‘City of Immigrants' (a song he says could be about Vancouver) is about of the pride he feels having become a New Yorker. ‘This City' deals with the uncomfortable reality of post-Katrina New Orleans. Earle doesn't talk much, but when he does he speaks frankly, discussing getting sober, war and his support for unions. It's hardly show business. But it's him.
"It's amazing the pinko sh*t you can get away with on the bluegrass review," he jokes.
The older Earle has grown the angrier he's become, but that fury has always been there. The highlights of the night, a trio of vintage favourites – ‘My Old Friend The Blues', ‘Someday' and ‘I Ain't Ever Satisfied', all echo the desire to escape from the shackles of small town, Sarah Palin-style ‘Real America'.
Seemingly without an ego, Earle is happy to share the spotlight with his band, The Dukes and Duchesses, who just happen to include his wife, the smoking hot Allison Moorer. They share the mic and kiss at the end of their duets, before she reveals that their 14-month old child is asleep, hopefully, in the tour bus. A massive talent in her own right, Moorer's three-song star slot climaxes with a moving version of Sam Cooke's ‘A Change Is Gonna Come.'
At the same time, letting guitarist Chris Masterson and bassist Kelley Looney each take lead vocal duties for a song is generosity run wild. But that's what you get with a Steve Earle show. His music. His opinions. His friends and family. He's not going to play oldies for you to sing along with, even though tracks like ‘Copperhead Road' and ‘Guitar Town' give the band and the crowd the much-needed chance to rock out. That's the price you pay with an artist giving a genuinely raw performance.
Where all this fits into a Jazz Festival schedule is a mystery, but if it's a sign of the organisers' openness to eclecticism, it can only be applauded.
Daft Punk, Lady Gaga and Slipknot to co-headline TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival 2012? The rumours begin here.
