The first video is a 1991 performance of his hit single, Copperhead Road.
In his performance, Earle gives off a confident and fearless rendition of the song. He plays the song by himself, with no band, and no accompanying music besides his mandolin. This creates a tense balance between the high end of the mandolin and the low nature of his voice. By leaving that mid range wide open, he is essentially creating a void that lets the audience feel the emotion of the song. It is very bare boned and honest. He isn't trying to hide anything, but instead lets all his emotions loose.
The next video is from a 2009 in store performance at Ameoba records in San Francisco. He is performing a Townes Van Zandt cover, off of his tribute album to him. Unlike the first video, he spends a lot of time interacting with the audience.
While his musical style hasn't changed drastically, his emotional release is different. In the past, he was basically portraying a character: a reckless cowboy who wrote songs to deal with his issues. Now, he is much more honest. Not to say he wasn't honest before, but now he just tells the audience how he feels, while still displaying his emotions in his music. He wears his activism on his sleeve and is much more vocal about it, rather than just writing lyrics about his beliefs.
Also, the two videos show how his crowd has changed. In the late 80s and early 90s, he was a "country" star - the first performance was actually broadcasted on CMT. Since then however, he has dropped off from the country scene, and just tried to please the people that actively find and enjoy his music. He no longer tries to fit into any mold and simply writes songs that express himself.
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