May 16, 2015
A barely 20-year-old Steve Earle sings the Mercenary Song while a drunken bunch of hooligans (with Guy Clark being the sloppiest) forget the lyrics and swing along. Everything about this is fantastic – the jugs of wine, the sweaters (it was christmastime), that incredible artwork on the wall, the amber lenses on the stringbean who stands up at the end… it just really paints a picture. Guy Clark asks him to sing Elijah’s Church at the end, which is worth going down the rabbit hole for…
This is from Heartworn Highways, a documentary from ‘81 that follows a bunch of these liquored up outlaw country bastards as they burn bridges and eat pills from 1975 to 1976. It is definitely worth your time.
