STEVE EARLE made his appearance unannounced, strolling on stage to join his support band, the V-roys, looking every inch the long haired "country outlaw" in leather jacket and shades. But the audience's initial expectations were confounded when he launched into the Slickers' reggae classic Johnny Too Bad, which he described as "a Jamaican hillbilly song."

When he returned soon afterwards it was with the Dukes, featuring guitarists David Steele and Mark Stuart, plus bassis Kelley Looney and drumber Custer: the rhythm section from Earl's 1988 album Copperhead Road. They began with Feel Aright, the upbeat opening track on his current album, but the two-and-a-half hour set drew on his ten-year back catalogue and included covers

of songs by the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

In mid-show Earle did a solo spot beginning with the two most intense tracks on his new album: first South Nashville Blues, performed in a Robert Johnson style that you could almost feel the hellhounds on his trail, then CCKMP (Cocaine Cannot Kill My Pain), which detailed the prolonged drugs habit which he only managed to lose during a drugs-related prison sentence two years ago.

When Earle sang songs like this, or the harrowing Ellis Unit One, it became clear that he is truly a "country outlaw" in the Johnny Cash and David

Allan Coe tradition, rather than a heart-throb in the clean-cut mould of the new Nashville heroes. This was also made clear in his ceaseless quips, which covered everthing from Garth Brooks and hallucinogenic mushrooms to his six marriages (Lou-Anne and I decided to get married again, cos our divorce didn't work out").

During the second encore the show came full circle when Earle and the Dukes were joined by the V-roys and a tin-whistle player for a rousing verson of Johnny Come Lately, which he originally recorded with The Pogues and which was inspired by a night on the tiles in Camden Town.

Earle no longer has those kind of nights, but he still seems fired by that spirit.