Hardcore Troubadour: The Life and Near Death of Steve Earle by Lauren St John (Fourth Estate £7.99)

WHEN I was given the album Guitar Town as a Christmas present in the late 1980s it was played to bits.

A lot of albums can grab you like that. But in the case of Guitar Town, it was quite obvious that this was not yet another piece of corporate product from the Nashville conveyor belt.

For Steve Earle was more than just a country rocker following in the dusty tracks of Hank Williams' Cadillac. He was not only a songwriter. He was a writer in every sense of the word.

This biography makes grim reading at times, as Earle's battle with the bottle and hard drugs is chronicled in minute detail. But this is not just a standard ride down the rock 'n roll road to excess - every chapter makes it quite clear that he was something out of the ordinary, the Dylan Thomas of Dixie.

Lauren St John first met Steve Earle five years ago and has spent three years on and off the road with himm and granted unprecedented access to Earle's past.

No stone has remained unturned, no question unanswered. He's a legend and one of the most gifted artists to emerge from the ashes of post-60s country music.

And this vibrant book takes you by the scruff of the neck, hauls you aboard the tour bus, and heads off down Highway 51.

Marvellous.

John Phillpott