Terraplane
Terraplane takes its title from the 1930s Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit model, which also inspired the Robert Johnson song €œTerraplane Blues.€ It is Earle€s 16th studio album since the release of his highly influential 1986 debut Guitar Town. As its title suggests, the album is very much a blues record, a third of which was written while Earle toured Europe alone for five weeks with just a guitar, a mandolin and a backpack. Earle, who was raised outside of San Antonio before migrating to Houston, offers about Texas blues, €œThere was Fort Worth where the model was Freddie King, and there was the Houston scene which was dominated by Lightnin€ Hopkins. Two very different styles.€ He saw both of these giants, and was also exposed to Johnny Winter, Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Billy Gibbons, all of which make their influence heard here within Earle€s masterful storytelling.