YMMV / Steve Earle

• Awesome Music: His whole discography is run through with this, but "Copperhead Road" most easily fits the bill.
• Chart Displacement: His only Top 10 country hits are "Guitar Town" and "Goodbye's All We've Got Left", but the former is far more famous than the latter. You're more likely to hear "Copperhead Road" on country radio, even though it didn't even hit the country charts at all — it was originally a rock radio hit instead.
• Covered Up:
  • "What'll You Do About Me", an early single of his that never appeared on an album until much later, has been recorded several times. The most famous versions are by Randy Travis (although his take was never a single) and Doug Supernaw (Top 20 in 1995).
  • Its followup, "A Little Bit in Love", was later a Top 5 hit for Patty Loveless in 1988.
  • Travis Tritt covered "Sometimes She Forgets", also in 1995.
• Epic Riff: "Copperhead Road". Mandolin and bagpipes.
• First Installment Wins: His Guitar Town album remains his most critically acclaimed album ever.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Or in this instance, the Irish love Steve Earle, largely thanks to the absolutely transcendental popularity of "Galway Girl" in Ireland as opposed to the rest of the world. It's not at all uncommon to see Irish listeners online affectionately comment on how the most Irish-sounding song in the world (and "Galway Girl" really is an amazingly authentic, traditional Irish folk tune) was written by a Texan.
• Growing the Beard: Literally and figuratively in the 90s.
• Heartwarming Moments: He has a few of these.
  • "When I Fall", his duet with his sister Stacey, recorded after he sobered up.
  Stacey: All these years I've watched you trip and stumble
  There were times that I feared that you were lost
  But every tear that I dried after you tumbled
  Comes to mind when I'm considerin' the cost
  • "Valentine's Day", one of his most vulnerable love songs, written as a valentine's day gift for his (then) wife after he realised he'd forgotten to get her something.
  • "Little Rock'n'roller", written for his son, which becomes Harsher in Hindsight considering how his life turned out over the next few years.
  • "Johnny Come Lately," which centers around a recently-returned Vietnam veteran musing about his war hero grandfather and English grandmother, who fell in love during the London Blitz. While also a Tearjerker in its own right, contrasting the public adulation received by World War II veterans with the complete disregard shown to those who were sent to Vietnam, it very simply and sincerely pays tribute to American veterans without glorifying war, with a (very uncharacteristically, given the subject matter) happy and jubilant tune thanks to the Irish folk instrumentation of The Pogues.
• Signature Song: "Guitar Town" for country, "Copperhead Road" for rock.
• Tearjerker: Hoooo boy. "Billy Austin" gets mentioned a lot, for good reason. Then there's "Goodbye"...
  Was I just off somewhere or maybe just too high?
  But I can't remember if we said goodbye