Guitar Town
by Steve Earle
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Steve Earle bestography
Guitar Town is ranked as the best album by Steve Earle.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Guitar Town on YouTube
Guitar Town track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Guitar Town rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 92 Music Albums of 1986 | 13/92 | 4 |
| 2026 | jonny5244 | Top 26 Music Albums of 1986 | 26/26 | 0 |
| 2026 | jdizzle123456 | Greatest Country Albums of All Time | 25/32 | - |
| 2026 | Skerns | Top 78 Music Albums of 1986 | 50/78 | 2 |
| 2026 |  neilgee | Top 100 Music Albums of 1986 | 82/100 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Pastiche | Top 24 Music Albums of 1986 | 19/24 | 1 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 85/100 | 3 |
| 2026 |  ERadio | Top 40 Music Albums of 1986 | 11/40 | 4 |
| 2026 | matterhornrider | Top 58 Music Albums of 1986 | 24/58 | 3 |
| 2026 |  zags7000 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1986 | 6/100 | 5 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 167 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 466 | |||
Guitar Town collection
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Guitar Town ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 148 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 4 days ago | Exist-en-ciel | 16,424 | 70/100 |
| ! | 04/19/2026 19:21 | AledJames | 1,720 | 69/100 |
| ! | 02/28/2026 16:48 | DaveH68 | 1,363 | 76/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 14% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 74.2/100, a mean average of 73.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.7.
Guitar Town favourites
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Guitar Town forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 09/23/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5444): By RomanelliView latest topic →
pedro1976 11/22/2025 08:38 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) pedro1976 03/30/2024 10:42 in What album are you listening to right now?View all forum mentions
Guitar Town comments
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Steve Earle's best record. He must have been really trying hard to make it in the music business because the production suffers a bit, sometimes it works but often it can sound dated. The songs are solid though. Recommended.
Track Pick: Someday
Bork TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/27/2010 20:39 | #11065 | TOP COMMENT
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Relistened to this album, and yeah, this is Steve Earle at his greatest. Not a single weak track and songwriting right up there with Kris Kristofferson and Guy Clark. A classic.
swhaze TOP 100 COMMENTER 11/18/2014 20:34 | #127363 | TOP COMMENT
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Steve Earle is definitely the Hank Williams of our generation-except thankfully he's lived to tell the tale.
Repo TOP 100 COMMENTER 04/08/2018 16:59 | #212536 | TOP COMMENT
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bobbyb: When I was real young I bought Guitar Town from one of those record clubs they used to have where you get albums in the mail. At the time I probably didn't think of it as country music, but I loved it. Of course now I can see that it's country, but I think at the time I just thought it was southern rock or something. Heh heh
Repo:
lol. I used to so the same thing. Columbia House. It's what got my addiction started. I blame them for everything. 12 albums for a penny. What kid couldn't refuse. Total dealers.
Yeah. This Steve Earle album is very much just 80s Heartland ROCK not that different from what John cougar and even Springsteen were doing at the time. It's definitely country with a major debt to Johnny Cash but it fits in nicely with AOR/MOR 80s rock for the most part. Just great songs and not a bit of filler. True 80s rock classic.
The one drawback on this album is the MOR 80s rock production with robs it of its power, but if you can track down the 30th Anniversary release (which is available on Spotify), he plays the entire album live in Chicago in 1987 without any of that production gloss. Totally worth hunting down!!!
Hayden TOP 100 COMMENTER 07/14/2012 22:45 | #46435 | TOP COMMENT
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Maybe if this was made 30 years earlier, it would've been impressive.... but it's fairly bland country-pop. Really cheesy lyrics over some well played guitar and 2 note basslines...I'm sorry, I don't find this better than any Taylor Swift album (not that she's any good either).
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