Steve Earle, in his own words, at UCLA’s Royce Hall

With a bio that’s often read like a tragic country song, the Texas singer-songwriter Steve Earle has pulled his act together in recent years and regained a lot of the footing he’d lost after starting out so promisingly a quarter-century ago as one of the most acclaimed young writers of his era. Earle is back to relying on his own pen in one of his strongest collections of songs, full of sharply etched observations on mortality, faith, the dirty side of politics, lust and murder, superstition and hard-won love on “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive.” Here he performs with Allison Moorer and the Living Sisters. Royce Hall, UCLA. 8 p.m. Sat. $15-$45. cap.ucla.edu.