Copperhead Road
It happens to every hard partier--your lifestyle eventually catches up to you. For Steve Earle, this third so-so effort from the then-roué-ish troubadour was a pretty glaring rehab-ahead warning light. The sloppiness was beginning to show: half the disc bogs down in throwaways, cheap echoes ofGuitar TownandExit 0's country-rock acumen. The rest, fortunately, is prime, focused Earle: the Vietnam-vet title track, the Wild West-themed "Snake Oil," and the oft-covered classic "The Devil's Right Hand," in which the composer achieves that perfect balance of city-slick pop and hillbilly twang. Earle would hit that one-two combo again, but not until he shook that party monkey a few albums later.--Tom Lanham