Steve Earle mixes guttural roars with Texas twang in upcoming Brown County show

In 1987, Steve Earle was choked unconscious, forever leaving his hemorrhaging vocal folds changed. That's part of his charm, and maybe it's even part of why he has won three Grammy Awards. You can catch him at 7:30 p.m. June 3 at the Brown County Music Center, along with his band, The Dukes, and guests, The Whitmore Sisters.

Earle's Harley-Davidson-revving voice mixes nicely with his Texan twang. The vocal effect, supporting his hearty lyrics, revs up his crowds of fans. They like his stories and messages, such as, "Not everybody gets to sit around in a coffee house and talk about politics. Most people don’t have that luxury. It’s not theory for them."

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Earle goes places in songs that others don't, and he has credited Bob Dylan for doing the same. A lionized American singer-songwriter, author (and advocate), Earle is a product of sorts of the famed songwriters Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. But Earle, always capable of holding someone's attention with a good story, soon attracted fame of his own. Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, The Pretenders, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez and others recorded his songs.

Earle's record Guitar Town (1986) blasted to No. 1 on the country charts and is still an Americana classic. The Revolution Starts...Now (2004), Washington Square Serenade (2007) and TOWNES (2009) grabbed Grammys.

He has been a regular and prolific album producer; fans particularly liked Copperhead Road (1988). Derailed at times by addictions and divorces — and nearly a year in prison — he still not only composes and sings but writes fiction. Earle writes this about Doc, a character in his dark, fast-paced novel "I’ll Never Get out of This World Alive":

“The worst part was that three quarters of a mile of semi-molten asphalt and humiliation lay between him and his first fix, and every inch would be an insistent reminder of just how far he had fallen in the last ten years. “

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Earle sings about what's going on out there. In an interview for The Washington Post with Geoff Edgers, Earle said, “Not everybody should write topical songs. It’s a hard thing to do ... but I think that we’re in trouble because people in New York think they don’t have anything in common with people in West Virginia. The fact of the matter is, they do. We have more in common with other human beings than we think. The world’s relatively small."

His new album, Ghosts of West Virginia (2020), showcases songs he wrote for the Off-Broadway play "Coal Country," about a mining tragedy. Last year, Earle released "J.T.," in memory of his son who died. Earle covered songs written by his son.

If you go

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Steve Earle brings songwriting talents to Brown County on June 3