Steve Earle once graced our screens with his performance of Walon on The Wire, where he played Bubbles’ Narcotics Anonymous sponsor. As the name suggests, the character had been quite a few trials and tribulations before ending up as a NA mentor. You might think that a gritty show like The Wire might not connect to musical theatre, but Stereogum reports that apparently it will now.
David Simon, who co-created The Wire, has maintained a working relationship with Earle since the actor’s time on the show. In fact, Stereo Gum reminded the audience that Simon selected Earle’s own song, “I Feel Alright,” to set in the background of an important montage at the end of season two. Earle has catalogued quite a few songs in his long hyphenated career as actor-singer-songwriter, but now he’s playing around a few different ideas.
Earle spoke with a reporter from The New York Times in reference to his new work in a play called Samara. The play is shown Off Broadway, and Earle discussed other musical ideas. According to Stereo Gum, Earle says that he and Simon were thinking about “a project set in the Baltimore neighborhood of Sparrows Point.”
However, talks are still in the early, hazy phase, and no further details were released. But it is interesting to see how two artists can consistently come back to a place of great importance to them: Baltimore, Maryland.