Steve Earle’s last great offering before his descent into hard drugs and the clink, Copperhead Road was where hillbilly country met roughneck rock’n’roll in all its tattoo’d, long-haired glory.

Nashville ignored it, but rock radio jumped all over the title track, Earle turning heads over here with Pogues collaboration “Johnny Come Lately” and scorching anti-gun diatribe “The Devil’s Right Hand”.

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But the real selling point here is a second disc of live songs, including eleven unreleased cuts from North Carolina in 1987. Best of the bunch are Rodney Crowell’s “Brown And Root” and a sinewy solo take on “Johnny Come Lately”.

ROB HUGHES

PIC CREDIT: NEIL THOMSON