`If Co Clare had to have an enema, Shannon is where they'd insert the tube," pronounces the Texan singer/songwriter Steve Earle. The larger than life figure, whose career has entered a new phase since he overcame his drug and alcohol addiction in 1994, still has vivid memories of the bleak landscape around Shannon airport which greeted him on his first visit to the west of Ireland three years ago. Earle, whose music career spans over 20 years and includes classic albums, including his famous Guitar Town, was travelling to Galway on that occasion to perform at a music festival. "It was my first time in the west, although I'd played in Dublin and Belfast before. I'd wanted to come to Galway after hearing about it through Mike Scott from the Waterboys and from Neill McColl, a fine musician who is Ewan McColl's son."
Despite initial impressions, Earle became a big fan of the west. "In 1996, I spent three months in Barna (just outside Galway city) writing my album, El Corazon. This time I wanted to focus on writing short stories and fiction, which is a new development for me, but which is also a natural extension of song-writing.
"I took up short story writing four years ago after being in jail for possession of heroin," explains Earle. "When I came out, I was paranoid about writing and just to get going again, I started writing anything. There were a lot of bad poems at first but then I began a short story." This was a form he felt comfortable with and, like his songs, his fiction is strong on old-fashioned storytelling. "I love Raymond Carver, but I also love Mark Twain," he explains, "and I'm still drawing on material from the 1970s, when I lived in Mexico."
Earle, who will see his material in print for the first time in next month's New Yorker magazine, now realises "that my writing is a gift and that I abused it and bad shit happened to me. But I did it because I was an addict."
Work is now a priority, but he also likes to relax and, for that reason, chose to live in Galway city rather than the countryside on this visit to Ireland. "I'm happy being in the heart of things. I work hard, but also like distractions and, when you live in a city, they're just outside the door.
"Galway is my kind of town," he explains in his distinctive Texas accent. "Every restaurant has a cappuccino machine, the streets are full of buskers and all the dogs wear bandannas." On his first visit to Galway Earle went into Cafe du Journal, a local restaurant. "It was full of women and I'd have married any one of them," he recalls.
The fact that Galway is a party city, where drink, at least, is a huge part of the culture doesn't present major difficulties to this sober alcoholic and former drug addict who, at the height of his addiction, was spending $7,000 dollars a week on drugs. "Anywhere there's a serious drink and drugs culture, there are also really good support facilities," says Earle, who has kept sober by following a 12-Step programme since coming off heroin while in jail in 1994. "I was convicted for heroin possession, but didn't show up for the sentencing hearing. This lack of respect, more than the possession, caused the judge to give me a year in prison," he says. While in prison, after an enforced absence from heroin, he took part in a rehabilitation programme. To do that he had to fight the system. "The jail used a particular treatment centre, but the programme there was full, so my lawyer fought to get me on to another one." Earle is scathing about the way drug addicts are treated in American jails. "The legal system is like a predator and it chooses easy prey. Poor junkies get locked up, rather than the people who supply. I'm one of the few cases in which the prison system accidentally worked."
Earle first dabbled with drugs at the age of 13, but they didn't really control his life until much later. "Because I could stop and start, which is what happened for years, I thought I was in control. In reality, my addiction was just slow to develop. And for many years I didn't have the money because, remember, I was 30 when Guitar Town came out and that was my first big hit. "But there came a time when I couldn't do without heroin and sold everything - including my guitars and my motorbikes, which I loved - to pay for drugs".
That battle is just one chapter in an event-filled life which includes a couple of spells in jail and six marriages to five women, one of whom he married twice. "That's life," he shrugs. His first marriage was at the age of 19, something which, he agrees, could be excused on the grounds of youth and stupidity. "I guess for the rest of them you could say I was older and still stupid," he observes wryly. "My hairdresser pointed out to me one day, while cutting my hair, waving a scissors over my head, that I didn't have to marry every woman I slept with.
"But I'm through with marriage now," he says, although he is in a relationship. He also retains strong connections with his children from his marriages. "My eldest boy lives with me in Tennessee and I see my other kids every day. I have another son and a step daughter. He finds it difficult to take time for himself and, so "in order to have a book of stories, I needed to come to Galway alone". While in Ireland, he has tackled his 60-a-day cigarette intake by taking up a pipe. "Cigarettes were eating me alive. But I couldn't bring myself to give up tobacco, so I decided to buy a pipe.
In order to do this, he went to Powell's shop, a Galway institution. "The girl behind the counter called on the owner, Mr Powell, who is a pipe smoker. He informed me that not everyone could smoke a pipe and he asked if I fished. I told him I did. Then he asked what type of fishing I did, fly or bait. And I wondered, my God, do I have to audition to buy a pipe. But when I told him I was a bait fisherman, he was satisfied that I'd be up to it."
Steve Earle's sense of humour is droll and laconic and born of a deep sense of observation. His anger at social injustices led to songs such as The Rain Came Down On The Farm for a farm aid benefit and Nothing But A Child, for an organisation providing for homeless children. "Since coming here I've gone to a couple of Socialist Workers' meetings, and I am a believer in Marx's economic theories. But I think that Marxism erred when it attempted to deprive ordinary, poor people of a sense of spirituality." Earle is an active opponent of the death penalty and, as part of that campaign, featured on the soundtrack for Tim Robbins's film, Dead Man Walking. "There's no other way to describe the death penalty except as vengeance. Although the authorities would deny that," he adds.
He regularly organises benefit gigs for that cause "and I use my Nashville connections to involve other people such as Emmylou Harris and the Indigo Girls. In return, I play for causes which they are involved in, such as the Zapatista movement in Mexico and the abolition of landmines."
He lives and works in Nashville, where he has a small record company with his business partner. "I also have my own studio, shared with another partner, where I record my material. It's a good set up." He loves music and attends gigs regularly in Galway. "I've done some concerts as well, although I wasn't supposed to because I've a new album coming out in February. But I wanted to play the Roisin Dubh," he explains, referring to one of the city's best known venues, which had special significance for him because it was a favourite haunt of his late friend, the brilliant and hell-raising Townes Van Zandt, who played his last-ever gig there.
"I've played two concerts there, and also played in Cork and Belfast. Taking a holiday for me is just doing one thing at a time," he jokes. Earle is a distinctive and popular character in Galway where his favourite haunts include Cafe du Journal for food and Aras Na nGael, the Roisin Dubh and Taylors' Bar for music. He has also participated in benefit gigs for various causes in the city. Meanwhile, his knowledge of Irish history and folklore would put many Irish people to shame. "I like to know about my environment," he says simply.
Steve Earle plays two farewell solo, acoustic concerts in the Roisin Dubh on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th December before returning to the US on Friday.
