''Washington Square Serenade'' is the 12th studio album by American singer-songwriter Steve Earle, released in 2007. The album features the singer's wife

Allison Moorer Allison Moorer (born June 21, 1972) is an American singer/songwriter. She signed with MCA Nashville in 1997 and made her debut on the U.S. Billboard Country Chart with the release of her debut single, “A Soft Place To Fall,” which she co-wr ...

on the track "Days Aren't Long Enough," and the Brazilian group

Forro in the Dark Forro in the Dark is a New York-based collective of Brazilian expatriates that formed in 2002. The group combines the musical style of forró (pronounced "faw-HAW"), "the percussion-heavy, rhythmic dance music" of their native Brazil, with elemen ...

on the track "City of Immigrants." The track "Way Down in the Hole," written by

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

, was used as the opening theme song for the fifth and final season of the HBO series ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American crime drama television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The Wire'' premiered on June 2 ...

'', on which Earle played a recurring character named Walon. The album was released on September 25, 2007, on

New West Records New West Records is a record label based in Nashville, Tennessee, and Athens, Georgia. It had offices in Burbank, California, and Beverly Hills, California. The label was established in 1998 by Cameron Strang "for artists who perform real music ...

. In February 2008 it won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album.

Track listing

''All songs written by Steve Earle unless otherwise noted.'' # "Tennessee Blues" – 2:39 # "Down Here Below" – 4:02 # "Satellite Radio" – 4:09 # "City of Immigrants" – 4:18 # "Sparkle and Shine" – 3:12 # "Come Home to Me" – 3:47 # "Jericho Road" – 3:36 # "Oxycontin Blues" – 2:54 # "Red is the Color" – 4:19 # "Steve's Hammer (for Pete)" – 3:15 # "Days Aren't Long Enough" (Earle,

) – 3:01 # "

Way Down in the Hole "Way Down in the Hole" is a song written by the singer-songwriter Tom Waits. It was included on his 1987 album ''Franks Wild Years'', which was later made into a stage production. The song was used as the theme for HBO's ''The Wire''. A differen ...

" (

) – 2:55

Personnel

Musicians

*Steve Earle -

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, mandolin,

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

, banjo, harmonica, tambura,

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. Th ...

- vocals *

John Medeski Anthony John Medeski (born June 28, 1965) is an American jazz keyboard player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood. He plays the acoustic piano ...

- organ, electric piano, mellotron, harmonium *Jeremy Chatzky - acoustic,

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

*John Spiker - electric bass *

Marty Beller Marty Beller (born July 10, 1967) is an American musician and songwriter. He is the current drummer for They Might Be Giants since Dan Hickey's departure in 2004. He has recorded two solo albums. He has contributed writing and vocals for three of ...

- drums *Patrick Earle -

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

: **Mauro Refosco -

zabumba A zabumba () is a type of bass drum used in Brazilian music. The player wears the drum while standing up and uses both hands while playing. The zabumba generally ranges in diameter from 16 to 22 inches, and is 5 to 8 inches tall. The shell is mad ...

**Davi Viera -

timba Timba is a Cuban genre of music based on Cuban ''son'' with ''salsa'', American Funk/R&B and the strong influence of Afro-Cuban folkloric music. Timba rhythm sections differ from their salsa counterparts, because timba emphasizes the bass dru ...

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...

**Jorge Continentino -

bamboo flute The bamboo flute, especially the bone flute, is one of the oldest musical instruments known. Examples of Paleolithic bone flutes have survived for more than 40,000 years, to be discovered by archaeologists. While the oldest flutes currently kn ...

**Smokey Hormel - baritone guitar *"The Downtown Proletariat Choir": **Patrick Earle, John King, Noah Goldstein, Josh Wilbur, Lee Foster, Charlie Stavish, Paul Bannister, Collin Hart, Petey

Production

* Produced and mixed by John King *Recorded at

Electric Lady Studios Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer by 1970. Hendrix spent only ten we ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

*Mixed at The Nest, Hollywood, California *Engineered by Josh Wilbur & Tom Camuso **Assisted by Noah Goldstein *Programming by Andrew Clark & John Spiker *Logistics - Patrick Earle *"

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture ( sound design, audio post-produ ...

Therapy" - Ray Kennedy *

Mastered Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...

- Jim Demain at Yes Master Studios **Assisted by Alex McCollough

Artwork

*Cover artwork by Tony Fitzpatrick *Photos by Ted Barron *Design by Dawn Hancock for Firebelly Design

Chart performance

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington Square Serenade 2007 albums Steve Earle albums Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album Albums produced by John King (record producer) New West Records albums