It is weird to see bad ass and rabble rousing “hardcore troubadour” Steve Earle and his band the Dukes playing in Southminster United Church, June 30.
And while he has matured with age and has been clean and sober for 19 years, the irony was not lost on Earle as he joked about it while 
personally introducing opening act the Mastersons aka guitarist/ singer Chris Masterson and fiddler player/ mandolinist/ singer Eleanor Whitmore. And when you get Steve Earle's personal stamp of approval you know it will be a good show
Masterson quipped “We have a half hour to make you love us.” It took barely a song to have the close to sold out audience in the palm of their hands, nodding their heads, tapping their feet and singing along by the end of the show as they played “ Good Luck Charm,” the title track from their latest album.
Eleanor Whitmore sang beautifully, her Austin twang sounding like a blend of Dolly Parton and Juice Newton with a touch of Kathleen Edwards.
She played some fine fiddle and sang beautifully while Masterson supplied excellent guitar and sang superb vocal harmonies with her
I fell in love with them at “Cautionary Tale,” a song about “friends and family staring at their cell phones,” an irony which was lost on a few people filming the show on their cell phones.
Most of the crowd stood up to give them a standing ovation after their set.
The Hardcore Troubadour himself, Steve Earle took the stage by 9 p.m. and played for a solid hour and a half. There were plenty of familiar hits like “Someday,” “Feel Alright” and the encore of “ I Ain’t Never Satisfied”, album tracks, a few stories and a lot of music from his most recent 2013 CD “The Low Highway.”
He started his set on acoustic guitar and picked up the electric for most of the rest of it, observing “ this is the best the band has ever been,” pointing out the addition of Chris Masterson on pedal steel and lead guitar and Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle, mandolin and piano for a couple of his classic hits.
Earle himself played piano on one of several songs about New Orleans.
“When you spend as much time as I do in New Orleans, you tell yourself you believe you can play piano,” he said, doing himself proud on piano as he noted he used to drink “badly.” He noted he spent a lot of time in New Orleans playing a homeless busker in post hurricane Katrina New Orleans in the television show “Treme,” and played a couple of songs he wrote for that.
He cursed a little bit more than the Southminster United Church is used to hearing.
He introduced one big, riff driven rocker early in the set as he grinned through his big bushy beard and quipped “I'd like to sell this song to Toby Keith and get rich and then maybe I wouldn’t have to work so f-----g hard, but he never returned my calls.” He sprinkled familiar songs like “Hardcore Troubadour” throughout the set. “Hardcore Troubadour” came early on as did “Guitar Town.”
Around 10 p.m. he picked up the mandolin, which he played for most of the rest of the show including his biggest hit “Copperhead Road,” and joked “Now all of you people on parole can get home before your ankle bracelet blows up, but for the rest of you, we’ll be here for a while.”
He was good for his word, as he watched a couple dancing in the balcony.
He showed off some bluegrass chops and a touch of Celtic music, which Eleanor Whitmore perfectly complemented on fiddle as well as another crew member on accordion.
Masterson alternated between several guitars including a beautiful Danelectro 12 string and baritone guitar for an extra little bit of twang.
He introduced his band including the Mastersons plus his long serving bassist Kelly Looney,” who has played with him since “Copperhead Road” and who alternated between stand up bass and electric bass and drummer Will Rigby.
Earle wound things down with a crowd favourite “Galway Girl” as he glanced at the couple dancing in the balcony.
He got a well deserved standing ovation just past 10:30 and returned for “I Ain't Ever Satisfied.”
