IF YOU GO

What: Steve Earle and the Dukes, Allison Moorer When: 8 p.m. Thursday Where: Bogart's, 2621 Vine St., Corryville Tickets: $20, $18.50 advance at Ticketmaster: (513) 562-4949; www.ticketmaster.com Information: 281-8400

Steve Earle is an unapologetic leftist who'd like nothing more than to see President Bush defeated in November.

So what would people who disagree with his politics get from Earle's new CD, The Revolution Starts ... Now, other than elevated blood pressure?

Actually, they might get fired up, too. For his disc's overriding theme is less about speaking up against Bush than speaking up in general.

"I don't hold 'them' responsible for the fact that the country is not going the way that I think it ought to go," he says. "I hold us - the people who think like I do - responsible. We went to sleep. Democracy, it's hard work. It requires vigilance."

The title cut is an anthem about that very idea. Earle's revolution is simply overthrowing apathy and, as he sings, it begins "in your own backyard, in your own hometown."

Like "John Walker's Blues," which tries to get inside the head of John Walker Lindh (the American who joined the Taliban in Afghanistan), Earle writes less about politics than characters whose lives are affected by the decisions of others.

Earle lives near Kentucky's military base, Fort Campbell, and some of his material came from watching what was happening there.

"We see stories about people losing their homes and losing their cars because they're desperate," he said. "They have the same problems in that community that you have in any community where people are basically poor. That shouldn't be happening. They're serving their country and should be better taken care of."

Can music make a political difference? Earle says he's lost track of the number of times people have approached him to say one of his songs changed their mind about the death penalty, something he's campaigned against for years.

"Don't try to tell me that songs don't change people's hearts or minds about things," he said. "They do. ... It's a very powerful medium."