Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.

In the early 2000s Earle's album Jerusalem expressed his anti-war anti-death penalty and his other "leftist views". Earle has recorded two other anti-death penalty songs: "Billy Austin" and "Ellis Unit One" for the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. Further reading
Schone Mark.

Earle grew up near San Antonio Texas and began learning the guitar at age 11. His songs have been recorded by Travis Tritt Vince Gill Shawn Colvin and Emmylou Harris.