Steve Earle To Release New Album 'So You Wannabe An Outlaw' Today

Musician, songwriter, actor and author Steve Earle and his country rock band The Dukes will release So You Wannabe an Outlaw on June 16 on Warner Bros. Records. The album is available for pre-order today via all digital retailers. Those who pre-order will receive an instant download of the album track "Lookin' For A Woman."

So You Wannabe an Outlaw, Earle's first album for Warner Bros. Records since 1997's El Corazón, explores his country songwriting roots and features collaborations with Willie Nelson, Johnny Bush, and Miranda Lambert.

"There's nothing 'retro' about this record," Earle says. "I'm just acknowledging where I'm coming from." So You Wannabe an Outlaw is the first recording he has made in Austin, TX. Earle has lived in New York City for the past decade. "Look, I'm always gonna be a Texan, no matter what I do," he says. "And I'm always going to be somebody who learned their craft in Nashville. It's who I am."

So You Wannabe an Outlaw is an homage to outlaw music and is dedicated to the late Waylon Jennings. "I was out to unapologetically 'channel' Waylon as best as I could." Earle says. "This record was all about me playing' on the back pick-up of a '66 Fender Telecaster on an entire record for the first time in my life. The vocal part of it is a little different. I certainly don't sound like Waylon Jennings. I moved to Nashville in November of 1974, and right after that Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger came out. I was around when Waylon was recording Dreaming My Dreams. Guitar Town (Earle's 1986 chart-topping, Grammy Award-winning debut album) wound up being kind of my version of those types of songs," Earle recalls.

Earle is backed on So You Wannabe an Outlaw by his long-time band The Dukes - guitarist Chris Masterson, fiddle player Eleanor Whitmore, bassist Kelly Looney, and new members drummer Brad Pemberton and pedal steel player Ricky Ray Jackson. The album was produced by Richard Bennett and recorded at Arlyn Studios in Austin.

A true Renaissance man, Earle has also become a novelist, a film, TV, and stage actor, playwright, author, record producer, and radio host over the course of his 30+ year career. He is currently appearing in the off-Broadway play Samara, for which Earle also wrote the score, that The New York Times called "exquisitely subliminal." He is also in the process of writing his memoirs for future publication. Tune in to Steve Earle's weekly radio show Hardcore Troubadour on SiriusXM's Outlaw Country Channel.

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