“Living in a city of immigrants, I don’t need to go traveling.” Steve Earle has apparently become a New Yorker, and has taken it upon himself to celebrate everything that makes this city great. Celebrations of my hometown don’t come around too often in country music, and this is a damn good one. His keen eye for the minute details of New York life – the streets, the people, the tension, the energy – is so vivid that it has me looking at my own city with fresh eyes and renewed appreciation.
Simply put, a gorgeous celebration of a beautiful city.
Grade: A
Listen: City of Immigrants
Earle’s new album is again an excellent record, some would say he’s not too interesting since 9/11 but I think his work gets better and better. Steve Earle keeps inventing himself.
Peter
This is much better than the trash Earle has been releasing lately. It’s a great single – a better single than NYC is a city
The dig at NYC is gratuitous and adds nothing to your comment about the single. What’s the point, slipping in a dig at NYC on a blog review written by somebody who lives there? Provocation for its own sake?
Why not ? I’ve been to NYC many many times and had two friends die in the WTC disaster of 9/11. I am not willing to pretend that it’s on my list of 25 favorite places to visit, although I prefer it to Los Angeles, Detroit or Philadelphia (although the smugness sometimes exhibited by many New Yorkers can be pretty grating).
I am not necessarily anti-big city; however, the two years I lived in London, a very civilized city at the time , make it difficult to appreciate any really large American city although I do love visiting Chicago, and Seattle and Milwaukee have much to offer.
That said, I’d sttll rather hear Earle’s song than have to visit NYC again
Great song! Has got me dancing and celebrating with tears! Heard the song on KPFA
Radio, had to find it, not at I Tunes store but put in into Search…now I’m dancing.
Spent 30 years in NY and will be in Times Square on New Years 2008. Living In a City of Immigrants speaks to my heart!
Personally, I’ve never found New Yorkers to be smug. I’m always amazed that a city as large as New York, with so many different cultures, languages, backgrounds, professions, religions and so forth, can live together so harmoniously. No city on earth exemplifies the term “City of Immigrants” quite like New York. It’s still the great melting pot that America used to be proud to be. Great song!