Steve Earle, Los Lobos thrill Sweetland Amphitheatre crowd

Sep. 4—LaGRANGE — Eight songs into his concert at the Sweetland Amphitheatre here, after winding up "Copperhead Road," perhaps his most beloved song, veteran country/rocker Steve Earle looked at his watch and said, "See how that worked out? Those of you on paper can now go home and be legal before your f---ing ankle monitor goes off. The rest of us are going to be here a while."

Indeed. Earle and his band The Dukes played 19 more songs after "Copperhead Road," mixing in some of Earle's classic hits among new material he and the Dukes recorded during the coronavirus shutdown.

Earle and the Dukes' impressive set followed an energetic and well-received opening by Los Lobos, who, despite a 30- to 40-minute rain interruption, showed they still can rock with any of the upstart Hispanic-speaking artists who have tried to usurp their reign as kings of native Mexican/Tejano/rockabilly/rock ... and all genres in between.

Earle and the Dukes — guitarist Chris Masterson, bassist Jeff Hill, drummer Brad Pemberton and fiddler/organist Eleanor Whitmore ... pedal steel player Ricky Ray Jackson had tested positive for COVID prior to this show and was set to rejoin them "as soon as he gets a negative test" — moved fluidly throughout Earle's vast and impressive catalog.

They opened with "Feel Alright," and won the crowd over with stirring versions of "Guitar Town" and "Hillbilly Highway" before Earle said, "I don't know how y'all feel, but I'm tired of everybody hurting each other with these f---ing guns." There were mixed cheers and a few catcalls as the band kicked into a rousing "The Devil's Right Hand" (... "Mama says a pistol is the Devil's right hand ...").

Perhaps the most rousing ovation of the evening — except for perhaps the set-closing and rocking version of "Hey, Joe," in which Masterson shone, and when Earle and the Dukes came out for a three-song encore — was before, during and after the one-two crunch of "The Galway Girl" and "Copperhead Road." No one seemed to mind that Earle got lost in the lyrics in the latter and transposed lyrics in the former to sing about the girl whose "eyes were black and her hair was blue."

A hard-hitting condemnation of the coal industry, part of Earle's "Ghosts of West Virginia" COVID project, came in the form of four powerful songs: "Union, God & Country," "Devil Put the Coal in the Ground," "It's About Blood" — during which Earle read off the names of 29 coal miners who were killed in one of the country's worst mining disasters — and the touching "If I Could See Your Face Again," sung by Whitmore.

The evening became bittersweet in the middle of Earle's set, as he talked about doing songs "I never thought I'd do in a million years": tunes written by his late son, Justin Townes Earle. As he finished that trio of songs — "Far Away in Another Town," the moving "The Saint of Lost Causes" and "Harlem River Blues" — Earle looked skyward and said, "I'll see you up there, cowboy."

The familiar songs kept coming after that interlude: "You're the Best Lover That I Ever Had," "So You Wanna Be an Outlaw," the wonderful "Taneytown" (highlight of the evening for me), "Fixin' to Die" and "Hey, Joe."

The encore of "Nowhere Road," "Baby Baby Baby (Baby)" and a rousing cover of the Band's "Rag Mama Rag" sent the crowd home in a jovial mood, many of them no doubt vowing to break out their old Earle albums, tapes and downloads in the very near future.

Los Lobos — guitarist/singer David Hidalgo, drummer Louie Perez, guitarist Cesar Rosas, bassist Conrad Lozaro and keyboard/saxophonist Steve Berlin — showed why their musical legend has endured and their live performances remain among music lovers' favorites.

There was little time for between-songs chatter: These boys came to play. They fired on all cylinders on original and cover tunes like "I Got Loaded," "That Train Don't Stop Here," "Georgia Slop" — which, Hidalgo proclaimed, "is for all of you here" — "Flat Top Joint," "Rebel Kind," "Native Son" and, of course, their No. 1 cover of Ritchie Valenz's "La Bamba."

The rain did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd, who reveled in the joy of veteran artists doing what they do best.