If you follow my reviews, you may know that I keep a mental list of who I consider to be the most prolific song-writers working at any given time. Recently I've been leaning toward Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Postal Service, and I have to say I think Matthew Pryor of Get Up Kids and the New Amsterdams was high in the running. I qualified this by stating that all this would depend upon what Steve Earle did next.

Steve Earle has without question been on a charmed run since conquering his substance abuse problems and being released from jail as a result. Since, regaining his freedom in 1995 he's released practically one critically acclaimed record per year and right on schedule along comes his brilliant new Revolution Starts Now. In the liner notes he makes the following remarks.

"The word 'immediate' best describes the atmosphere around the studio as this record was being made in the late spring of 2004. the The prisoner abuse scandal had just broken and the Bush Administration, still reeling form the 9/11 commission hearings, was circling the wagons. The Democrats for their part, were carefully (sometimes, in my opinion, too carefully) trying to sort out how best to press the advantage. Meanwhile, back here in Tennessee, me and my boys had a deadline to meet.

The most important presidential election of our lifetime is less than seven months away and we desperately wanted to weigh in, both as artists and citizens of a democracy. All but two of these songs were recorded within 24 hours of the first line hitting the paper. We worked 12-14 hour days and in between takes and over meals we talked about the war the election baseball and women in precisely that order.

I read all this before I heard the album, and even though it scored about as high a rating as Rolling Stone ever deems fit to ladle out, I was still skeptical - Steve is one of my very favorite human beings, but I generally prefer his music when he steers clear of politics. I say this with full knowledge that he has written what is unquestionably the most brilliant song ever written about Capital punishment, "Billy Austin." In any case I was in for a serious treat. Revolution Begins Now is not only Steve's best album from a musical standpoint, maybe ever, but it's his best lyrical effort since '95's Train 'a Comin'.

For all it's off-the-cuff one take and let's move on feel, these are some of Earle's best songs and that's saying something. For example the opener and title track has a wonderful groove and hits a bit of a Beatlesque quality in the chorus. The following track "Home to Houston" owes a big tip of a black hat to Johnny Cash and tells the story of a civilian truck driver working for one of the big American contractors being paid so well to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure. Similar to the much ballyhooed "Johnny Walker Blues" from his last release Jerusalem, this track and the next "Rich Man's War" simply tells these stories as the truth dictates. There's no need to slant these tales one way or the other in terms of their politics, they're the truth, and all the spin-doctors in the world can't change that.

Mid way through the record comes the track that certainly finds Steve's tongue firmly in his cheek, "Condie, Condie" is a love song written for Condaleeza Rice, and sends her up the flagpole for her remark about her blind loyalty to George W Bush. The album features two amazingly gorgeous ballads that are non-Iraq related and I'd honestly have to say they're the best songs on the record. The first is a duet with Emmy Lou Harris, "Comin Around," and the second "I Thought You Should Know" stand high among Earle's best lovelorn ballads and offer a bit of a respite from the polemics.

Still Earle seems to work best when he's got a burr in his breeches and as such Revolution Starts Now is going to find it's way onto the best-of lists of every self-respecting critic in criticdom. My only complaint is that even though there are eleven tracks, it's over way too soon. Regardless your political stance you cannot deny that Earle is among the very best songwriters working today. And at a point in his career, when most artists start milking greatest hits collections Steve is perhaps in the finest form of his career. God Bless America.