So Alaa bought me two tickets to go see Steve Earle and Allison Moorer in Ithaca last night. She couldn't go, so I took my friend Travis. We went to this amazing tapas place in Ithaca before the show and got good and lubricated on Ithaca Pale Ale. I had a salad, a cheese plate with manchego and a locally made gruyere clone, the best salt-cod fritters I've ever had, some smoked pork tenderloin with a cilantro aioli, and a homemade chorizo sausage. It was fantastic, and luckily I laid down a good base since it turned out that Ithaca Brewing Company was selling their wares in the theater, too.

We got to the show a few minutes before Allison Moorer went on, downed a pint of Cascazilla (very hoppy I.B.C. pale ale) and sat back to enjoy the ride. The State Theater in Ithaca is a restored Movie Palace from the 1930's, and it's gorgeous -- think Fox Theater in Atlanta, but smaller. Great environment to see a show. Let me say that Allison Moorer, who is also Earle's wife, is not a great guitar player. She is adequate. But holy shucking fit can that girl sing. She was on for 45 minutes, and I was totally rapt. Travis decided that he hated her because no one should be able to sing like that. Her range is amazing, and she has so much power that where we were in the balcony, about 40 linear feet from the stage, you could clearly differentiate between her natural voice and what was coming over the PA in the room. It also makes an amazing contrast to then hear SE's raspy tenor; if anything, it makes him seem even more earthy and grounded in comparison. They did a duet in the second half of Steve's set, and they really sound unearthly together.

There was a brief intermission, and Steve came on just before 9. He ended up playing almost two and a half hours without a break. Travis, who is a total music nerd, took notes, and I should be able to add a set list to this in the next couple of days. The first thing about Steve is that he is 50 pounds lighter than the last time I saw him, and considerably balder. He has developed an unfortunate tuft of hair just above his forehead in the middle of classic male pattern baldness. His hair is as long as I have seen it since the middle of his career (including the unfortunate bit), he's wearing reading glasses on stage, his beard is long and mostly grey, and he's got a bit of a paunch. You immediately do a double take because his wife is really, really good looking, and you immediately think: I guess that's what being the best working singer-songwriter in the world gets you, cause it sure ain't his looks.

The first half of his set was solo acoustic, and he did some old standards: Devil's Right Hand, Goodbye, Tom Ames' Prayer, as well as some more recent stuff. He was really, really good. He was dropping down sometimes rather than reaching for notes at the top of his range, but his voice sounded good. It was much stronger than when I saw him in 1995, right off of rehab, and there was a lot more energy in the performance. He still really knows how to control a crowd, and his political views were well received by the Granola munching crowd in Ithaca. He interspersed brief conversational bits between songs, running commentary about the Bush administration, comments about the death penalty (fairly brave to say he opposes the death penalty, even for Osama Bin Ladin considering the day the show was on). His guitar playing was strong, and he spend most of the show alternating between his classic Gibson and a new signature line of Martin guitar, which can only be described as crystalline in its clarity.

The second half of his set was mostly new material that he performs with a DJ (!?!?!). I was extremely skeptical about this new development, but it really worked, and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a natural evolution for him. The same way he appropriated elements of Bluegrass for Train a Comin', internalized them and made them his own, he has taken the urban sounds of his new home (New York City) and turned them into a kind of music I've never heard before. A National guitar with beats being spun in the background... it's great. He played in this mode for about an hour, then wrapped up sort of perfunctorily. There was thunderous applause, and he came back for a three song encore which he wrapped up with a solo acoustic version of Copperhead Road. No one wanted him to leave, but all good things must come to an end. The 75 minute drive home went by in a hurry, and I'm still floating today.