teve Earle has often been branded with being the "hillbilly Springsteen", but in a year in which "The Boss" released The Rising, a bloated, odious album, Earle trumps him in every possible way with the spellbinding and blistering social commentary of Jerusalem. Earle's throwing of Jerusalem into the American conciousness is akin to lighting a match to a gas can: explosive. Earle started the firestorm well in advance of the album’s release, though. The track "John Walker's Blues", released as the lead single, was one of the only attempts to get inside the mindset of the misunderstood youth that joined the Taliban. Earle seemed the only one remotely interested in asking what led this young man to such a divergent life from his American peers. Some speculate that Earle was courting this controversy outright and that he had written a rather incendiary letter which accompanied the album's advance copies in the hopes of starting an uproar. The only thing that mattered to the press, rather than the actual message of the song, was pouncing on a voice of dissension as if he were a three-headed pink elephant that needed to vanquished from the Earth merely for existing. It’s a shame too, because this biased attention unfairly took away from Earle's strongest release in some time. Jerusalem is not an album locked into one theme in the way that The Rising does. Rather, Earle sets his sights on a number of societal issues: drugs, prison, paranoia, fear, apathy, love, man's conquering instincts, despair and hope. Where Earle attempts dialogue with the American people, Springsteen is more content with a group hug.


Doffing his cap, musically speaking, to The Rolling Stones on "Amerika v. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do)", Earle serves up a heaping mound of dirty blues rock the likes of which the world's greatest rock 'n roll band has not been able to produce in more than twenty-five years. By far the most pointedly vicious song on the album, "Amerika" reminds that the ideas and ideals that this country produced in the constitution are at perilous stake, due to our collective desire to insulate ourselves from fear and terror. "Conspiracy Theory", featuring Earle on every instrument and Siobhan Maher-Kennedy on backing vocals, examines the fear that is inherent in those that find conspiracies behind every door they open. Singing, "What if I told you it was done with mirrors / What if I told you it was all a lie / Better be careful someone might hear ya / The walls have ears and the sky has eyes", Earle shows this reaction to be as counter-productive as recoiling in fear and supporting freedom restrictions in an effort to feel "safe". "What's A Simple Man To Do" is about a financially desperate man who gets caught dealing drugs and writes an apology letter to his love while in prison. "The Truth" is a song with a subject Earle has first hand knowledge: prison. "There's a guard on the second shift comes on at three / And he's always about a half inch off of me / Like he needs to keep remindin' me that I'm not free / God forgive him 'cause he doesn't see / He's no less a prisoner 'cause he holds a key / And God forbid he turns his back on me". The title track, "Jerusalem", shows that the well spring of hope is still high. Despite the threat of "death machines rumblin'" and the sound of the war drums drumming, Earle sees the redemption of the world lying in the future of the world's youth.


Everything isn't all doom and gloom, however. Love of life, love found and love lost is scattered throughout the album's briskly paced eleven songs. "The Kind" offers up a gentle border-country vibe, while "Go Amanda" is a passionately performed break-up song. The duet with Emmylou Harris on "I Remember You" is stirring for Harris' beautiful vocals. Ex-Wilco drummer Ken Coomer also contributes some lovely and perfectly restrained percussion to this song.


Five months after its release and one year/five months since America was dealt a terrifying psychological blow, Earle's take on America's state of mind is still as vital and necessary as ever and needs to be heard, if only to wash out the horribly bland taste of Springsteen's simplistic reduction of these unclear times.