Weekend Song – Steve Earl

Here’s a nice coincidence.

I started a book this week called The Killer Angels. It’s a novel about the Civil War, which holds an interest for me.

So does bluegrass, which is why I forked out when Steve Earl recorded an album with the Del McCoury band a few years ago. My favourite song on the album is called Dixieland, which is about that same conflict.

I lost the album a few years ago and it wasn’t on itunes and I couldn’t be bothered to order it.

What I didn’t realise until this week is that a character in the song also appears in the book. I looked up The Killer Angels On Wikipedia this week and in the footnotes it says:

Singer-songwriter Steve Earle included a song on his 1999 bluegrass album, The Mountain, called Dixieland, sung from the point of view of the fictional Buster Kilrain.

So I checked on itunes and, of course, the album is now available.

It’s told from the point of view of a soldier who came over from Ireland and fought in the 20th Maine under Colonel Chamberlain.

On to the song – it’s got your staple banjo, acoustic bass, fiddle, guitar and mandolin, but check in a penny whistle and Steve Earl’s voice and it’s chilling.

You get that with a lot of Celtic music, which sounds happy but that’s just a false ease, like how Scousers call you “friend” right after they threaten to kill you.

What makes it terrifying is that it sounds like a happy song, but the turn of phrase leave you in no doubt the protagonist would not only tear you a new one, but he’d probably charge you for his troubles. Yes, your rock gods sound like they can fly, but this guy would rather enjoy making you do it.

The way he pronounces every word perfectly scares me. He’d probably like a bit of pleading.

So I joined up with the 20th Maine
like I said my friend I’m a fighting man.
Marching south in the pouring rain,
we’re all going down to Dixieland.

Listen: Dixieland