Copperhead Road by Steve Earle

Copperhead Road, Steve Earle's third studio album, came out on Uni in 1988, with Tony Brown producing, and it's the record where the Nashville songwriter plugged in and let it rip. It's usually called his first rock album, and Earle himself bills it as the first time anybody crossed bluegrass with heavy metal; a Rolling Stone review early in 1989 floated the name "power twang".

Either way, it hits like a pickup truck with a mandolin strapped to the hood: country rock with big, snarling guitars and a backwoods swagger. The title song turned into his bestselling single, and it refuses to die, finding a whole new audience in the 21st century. Sitting between Exit 0 and The Hard Way, it's the sound of a Nashville songwriter kicking the barn door open.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.