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Amazon.com Never one to mince words, Steve Earle told his biographer Lauren St John, "COPPERHEAD ROAD was `f*$@ you,' to an extent." Released Oct. 17, 1988, the album was indeed a raised middle finger to Nashville's country music establishment, which had viewed the intransigent singer-songwriter's swift rise in the late `80s with undisguised distaste. Brazenly explosive and hard-rocking, it was not the work of an artist who would be — or would want to be — embraced by the Grand Ole Opry. It also marked the commercial pinnacle of his career's tumultuous first chapter.
The public responded to COPPERHEAD ROAD as MCA had hoped: The album won widespread mainstream critical acclaim and substantial rock radio airplay, and became Earle's second gold release. The set broadened his fan base in a way many in Music City had not foreseen. It must have been a satisfying moment for country's most persistent anti-authoritarian: He had proved Nashville wrong.
The present expanded Deluxe Edition offers a deep look at Earle on stage in the months surrounding the recording and release of COPPERHEAD ROAD. A November 1987 performance from Raleigh, North Carolina, by the Exit 0 band includes early renditions of "The Devil's Right Hand" and "Johnny Come Lately," plus three numbers dating back to his Epic sessions and covers of songs by his Nashville compadre Rodney Crowell and early influence Gram Parsons. Springsteen receives homage in a 1988 solo version of his brooding "Nebraska." Finally, five songs from an April 1989 Canadian date reveals the stops-out potency of the Copperhead Road-era Dukes on the road.
