"Guitar Town" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...

. It was released in June 1986 as the second single and title track from the album ''

Guitar Town ''Guitar Town'' is the debut album from singer-songwriter Steve Earle, released on March 5, 1986. It topped the ''Billboard'' country album charts, and the title song reached #7 on the country singles charts. Earle was also nominated for two 1 ...

''. The song reached number 7 on both the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Country Singles & Tracks Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart and the Canadian ''RPM'' Country Tracks chart. It was Earle's highest peaking song to date on the country charts in both the U.S. and Canada. Originally, the lyrics were "cheap guitar", but then changed to "

Jap ''Jap'' is an English abbreviation of the word "Japanese". Today, it is generally regarded as an ethnic slur. In the United States, some Japanese Americans have come to find the term very offensive, even when used as an abbreviation. Prior to t ...

guitar".

Critical reception

Kip Kirby, of ''

'' magazine reviewed the song favorably, saying that Earle "revives the tremolo-laden guitar sound of the early '60s for this song about music and love on the road."''

'', June 7, 1986

Music video

The music video was directed by Gerry Wenner and premiered in mid-1986.

Chart performance

References

1986 singles Steve Earle songs Songs written by Steve Earle Song recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer) Song recordings produced by Emory Gordy Jr. MCA Records singles {{1986-country-song-stub