***1/2 Steve Earle

EL CORAZON

(E Squared/Warner Bros.)

Given the stunning twin triumphs of 1995's Train a-Comin' and last year's I Feel Alright, it's no surprise to find Steve Earle's name on another extraordinary album about ordinary people. With a voice that breathes cool fire and a supporting cast that includes Emmylou Harris, the Del McCoury bluegrass band, and Seattle punks the Supersuckers, Earle distills a new batch of tunes that sound as if they'd been sewn into the fabric of America ages ago.

The dirt roads of his dry and dusty songs lead to honky-tonks, board rooms, and kitchens across the country. On the opening track, "Christmas in Washington," he laments the loss of Woody Guthrie, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X, chronicling a United States fractured by poverty, injustice, and cold-hearted indifference. In "Taneytown" he writes from the perspective of a 22-year-old retarded African-American man confronting racism. Heavy stuff to be sure, but Earle is never preachy. He keeps things swinging with the silvery jangle of acoustic and electric guitars and a perspective that cuts rather than bludgeons.

-- Jonathan Perry