Steve Earle & The Dukes
May 27, 2022
New West Records recording artist Steve Earle shares his 22nd album, Jerry Jeff, featuring Earle’s rendition of the classic acoustic ballad, “Wheel.” The 10-track collection, out now, pays tribute to Jerry Jeff Walker, the influential cowboy troubadour who passed away on October 23, 2021. After performing in Texas at a concert celebrating Walker’s life, Earle took his band, The Dukes, to Electric Lady Studios in New York, where they recorded ten of Walker’s songs.
Earl writes in the liner notes: “This record completes the set, the work of my first-hand teachers, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Jerry Jeff, the heroes I was lucky enough to sit across the room from, so I could listen and learn up close and personal as they say.”
Earle was 14 when he first heard Walker. His high school drama teacher gave him a copy of “Mr. Bojangles,” Walker’s classic ballad about an unforgettable character he met in a New Orleans jail. About the single, Earle stated “There’s a tendency to think of Jerry Jeff around a relationship to one song. He was also such a great interpreter of other people's songs. But my main purpose in recording this album was to remind people that he wrote a lot of fucking great songs.”
Fans can see Steve Earle and The Dukes perform some of these songs and more live during their summer tour, which kicks off on June 1st. Go here for a full list of tour dates.