Steve Earle At The BBC (Universal Music)

Hearing Steve Earle live is a reminder of just how hard he is to pin down. There’s a traditional country and roots star in there for sure, but it’s no higher in the mix than the political troubadour or the pioneer of a kind of hard rock bluegrass that’s been described, pretty accurately, as ‘power twang’.

He’s been compared to Springsteen, of course, and not without cause. There are the common man sympathies, Vietnam references and left-ish politics (though Earle was a more blatant 80s anti-Reaganite than Springsteen, happy to compare the Old Gipper to a travelling conman). But more than any of that there’s the live thing. As Live at the BBC makes clear, Earle was born for the stage. There’s an unforced intimacy that you’d be hard pressed to find at a Girls Aloud gig (I imagine). And the Dukes provide drum-tight back-up.

The album captures Earle at the top of his game, and touring a record – Copperhead Road – packed with live highlights. There are blistering versions of Snake Oil and The Devil’s Right Hand, and a Johnny Come Lately that pretty much cements its position as the best country rock song, like, ever.

Which is kind of what you’d expect. More surprising is that some of Copperhead Road’s less celebrated material comes out well here (Even When I’m Blue sounds a bit middle of the road in the studio – it’s a belter live). And then there’s the leftfield stuff. When Will We Be Married is Scottish folk done with a hefty sprinkle of country and a large slice of rock. Weird and good.

Hugh Wilson