Jackson Free Press

March 10, 2004—Steve Earle, who performed at an anti-death penalty benefit at Hal and Mal's on Friday, March 12, stirred up controversy in the country-music world in 2002 with his "John Walker's Blues," sung from the perspective of the infamous "Taliban American." Replete with Arabic chanting and references to America as "the land of the infidel," the song was widely misconstrued as unpatriotic or even sympathetic to the Taliban.

In fact, it was a commentary on how the crisis of meaning in consumer America might lead a young, middle-class man to seek spiritual solace elsewhere. In the contemporary political climate, however, Earle's empathetic narrative stance was all too readily equated with sympathy.

"John Walker's Blues" is typical of Earle's approach to political issues in his songwriting, which is notable for his ability to illuminate and bring nuance to topics by creating convincing alter egos that don't follow conventional political lines. Earle, who burst onto the music scene in the early '80s with his country-flavored roots rock, first addressed the death penalty on his 1990 album "The Hard Way" with "Billy Austin," a ballad about death row sung from the position of a prisoner.

During the recording of that album, Earle was addicted to cocaine and heroin, and after run-ins with the law over the next few years, he was sentenced to a year in jail, but instead spent four months in a rehabilitation center. Following his release, a newly sober Earle achieved critical success with a series of albums including the acoustic "Train 'A Comin'," his comeback masterpiece "I Feel Alright," "The Mountain," a collaboration with bluegrass giant Del McCoury that featured Emmylou Harris, Iris DeMent, and Gillian Welch, and the Grammy-nominated "Jerusalem," which features "John Walker's Blues."

Earle also became more active politically after his incarceration, particularly on the issues of land mines and the death penalty. For the soundtrack to the film "Dead Men Walking," he contributed "Ellis Unit One," named after the holding facility for death row inmates in Texas, where 320 inmates have been executed since 1982. [The song also appears on the 2002 compilation "Sidetracks," a collection of what Earle calls "stray songs" that features excursions into roots reggae, Irish music, and bluegrass, and covers of songs by Bob Dylan ("My Back Pages"), Lowell George ("Willin')," and even Nirvana ("Breed")].

On Earle's recent CD "Transcendental Blues," the song "Over Yonder (Jonathon's Song)" pays homage to a resident of Ellis Unit One, Jonathon Nobles, a double murderer who subsequently became a model prisoner and a lay minister of the Dominican Order. Earle's relationship with Nobles began with written correspondence and concluded when Earle accompanied Nobles through his last days, including witnessing his execution.

This experience led Earle to develop empathy for everyone involved in the execution process, including the family members of the victims and the guards, whose position Earle assumed in "Ellis Unit One:"

Well, I've seen 'em fight like lions, boys
I've seen 'em go like lambs
And I've helped to drag 'em when they could not stand
And I've heard their mamas cryin' when they heard that big door slam
And I've seen the victim's family holdin' hands

As for Earle's own opposition to the death penalty, he explained his position on his recent live CD, "Just An American Boy," in his introduction to "Over Yonder": "I object to the damage it does to my spirit for my government to kill people, because my government is supposed to be me, and I object to me killing people. It's very simple."

Earle's concert, which also features local musicians Eric Stracener and Sherman Lee Dillon, is a fundraiser for the Jackson-based Mississippians Educating for Smart Justice (MESJ). The organization was founded in 2002 to protest the state of Mississippi's pending (and eventual) execution of Ronald Chris Foster, who was 17 at the time he murdered George Shelton during a robbery. Foster, who rode his bicycle to and from the crime scene, had an IQ of 80, just 10 points over the American Association of Mental Retardation's definition of persons with mental retardation. The only other countries beside the United States that execute juvenile offenders are Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen.

James E. Bowley, an associate professor of religious studies at Millsaps and a MESJ spokesman, said the organization employs a multi-faceted approach to the death penalty issue.

Bowley said MESJ hopes to accomplish three goals: "One is providing educational programming for the public on this issue, whether literature, speaking engagements, or websites. Secondly, we want to provide support for victims, and we mean families of murder victims and families of those who are in prison for murder. If we are really opposed to violence, then we need to oppose it on all sides, and we need to provide support for all victims of violence. And unfortunately our state does not provide very good support for victims of violence. And the third thing we're doing is advocating for a moratorium and even the abolishment of the death penalty."

Bowley refers to a quotation from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s book "Strength to Love": Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. The chain reaction of evil—hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars—must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.