steve earle's debut is an album i grew up on, and so i perhaps have some disproportionate feelings for it. for me, it's one of my favorite country albums from this era. this album lives somewhere in the middle of early 80s springsteen, john cougar, dwight yoakam, and marshall crenshaw. the one thing that always strikes me is how catchy all these songs are. steve earle has a knack for writing a great hook. the one thing i will knock it for is that the production is a little too mid-80s for my liking, but the songwriting and earle's performance are good enough to outweigh it for me.