Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart – Must Be Live
I saw Stacey Earle perform at a store in Nashville during the summer of 1998. She was promoting her first album, Simple Gearle, but I hadn’t heard any of it yet. As shallow as it seems now, I just wanted to see Steve Earle’s little sister. But I walked away with a copy of her album and the distinct impression that Steve’s little sister had something to say.
Must Be Live is the first true collaboration between Earle and her husband, Mark Stuart, but this two-disc set offers little in the way of new material. The duo covers ten songs from Simple Gearle and seven from her 2000 release, Dancin’ With Them That Brung Me. There are three songs from Stuart’s Songs From A Corner Stage (1999), and three new Stacey Earle tunes.
The album’s smoothness is somewhat surprising, especially since these performances were recorded at several venues and pieced together for this compilation. Earle’s vocals are marked by a Texas yelp that I find rather endearing (think Toni Price on Sol Power, or Nanci Griffith on practically anything). Stuart’s contributions on vocals and guitar are decidedly bluesy. Spoken-word introductions give this a true live feel. Conveniently, these are included as separate tracks, in case you’re only interested in the songs.
One of the album’s most poignant moments comes from Earle’s introduction to “Losers Weep”. After apologizing to her parents for the indiscretions of her misguided youth, she alludes to a “secret” she had at age sixteen. Earle leaves it to the audience to unravel the story of a child born out of wedlock and given up for adoption. “You’ve got to listen real close”, she whispers, “and I’ll bet you can figure it out.”