Steve Earle Train a Comin'

8 - Very Good - "...Earle offers neither contrite confessionals nor toothless mush. He's too dogged and proud to be anything but himself....[His] redemptive gift lies in his ability to evoke poignance and loss without spilling into sentimentality....Truth be told, he makes no mistakes..."
"...Nashville's baddest boy returns, after a five-year-absence, with an acoustic album of early material, new songs, and covers by country-folk mentors like Townes Van Zandt....Earle is nothing short of a narrative master..." - Rating: B
Included in Q's 50 Best Albums of 1995.
3 Stars - Good - "...sounds like a man beginning to feel his way around again after a long period out of circulation. He's gone back to where he started, making an acoustic album with the emphasis on the songs....He may be bowed but he's plainly not beaten."
"...the writing is crisp and tough, deeply rooted in tradition but never self-consciously folky, and Earle sounds as if he has lived every word..."
"...TRAIN A COMIN' is all acoustic....the feel of the record is also retrospective...very live, ramshackle and raw. Earle plays his guitar and mandolin parts with customary vigour and sings his heart out in his ragged but right voice..."
7 (out of 10) - "...a slew of smart tunes played simply on guitar, mandolin and stuff....He was always doomed by comparisons to Springsteen in the past but these days Earle comes over like a trainee Johnny Cash: pithy, grim-voiced, strangely mythical..."