Acclaimed singer-songwriter Steve Earle performs and shares stories from throughout his career as part of the Museum's Poets and Prophets series, which honors songwriters who have made notable contributions to country music. The Museum’s Allison Moorer moderates this program, which was recorded on January 3, 2026.

During the program, Earle discusses his childhood growing up in Texas and his legendary 1974 hitchhiking trip from San Antonio to Nashville, where he quickly joined a group of fellow bohemian Texans that included his mentor, Guy Clark. He also reflects on his decade as a staff writer for various song-publishing companies, his signing with MCA Records, and the 1986 release of his critically acclaimed, Bruce Springsteen-endorsed debut album, “Guitar Town.” Additional topics of discussion include Earle’s genre-bending album “Copperhead Road,” his politically charged releases “Jerusalem” and “The Revolution Starts Now,” his work advocating against the death penalty, and his compositions for a forthcoming musical. Throughout the interview, Earle performs solo renditions of “Copperhead Road,” “Guitar Town,” “Ben McCullough,” and “I Don’t Trust Happiness.”

One of American roots music’s most enduring and influential artists, Earle has an expansive catalog that includes songs recorded by Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris, the Highwaymen, Miranda Lambert, Patty Loveless, and Ricky Skaggs. In 1996, he founded the E-Squared label and released six intensely personal, wide-ranging, and critically praised albums in eight years, including “The Mountain,” a bluegrass set recorded with the Del McCoury Band. Earle has made twenty-one studio albums, but his career extends beyond music. He has written a book of short fiction, a novel, and a play, and produced eleven albums for other artists, including Lucinda Williams’s “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.” Earle is the host of the “Hardcore Troubadour” radio show, has appeared in several films, and has had recurring roles on two HBO series, “The Wire” and “Treme.” He has won three Grammys for Best Contemporary Folk Album, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020, and joined the Grand Ole Opry in 2025.

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