Now an adopted son of Ireland, Virginia-born and Texas-raised Steve Earle has confounded his detractors (and probably his supporters, too) by turning around his career in the space of five years. He's still perceived as a country artist, but he's recently shown an interest in the pop and rock elements of The Beatles and Nirvana. Within the confines of country music, there's no one as good or as rugged as Grammy-nominated Earle, whose accomplishments always seem to complement (but not supersede) his blue collar worldview. His latest album is Transcendental Blues and he plays Galway's Black Box on Wednesday, September 20th and Dublin's Olympia on Friday, September 22nd and Saturday, September 23rd.
