Steve Earle and Steve Buscemi Celebrate New York’s Diversity With ‘City of Immigrants’ Video

Veteran musician and actor Steve Earle, renowned for his extensive songwriting career with hits like “Copperhead Road” and “Guitar Town,” as well as acting roles in series such as “The Wire” and “Treme,” has joined forces with celebrated actor-director Steve Buscemi, known for his work in films like “Fargo” and “The Big Lebowski” and TV’s “The Sopranos.” Despite their shared artistic sensibilities and long-standing careers, the two Steves only met for the first time earlier this year. Buscemi was suggested as the director for a new music video for Earle’s 2007 track “City of Immigrants,” which appears on his New York-themed album “Washington Square Serenade.” The video, a vibrant tribute to New York City’s multicultural identity, was shot on a spring afternoon in April across several neighborhoods, including the East Village and Jackson Heights in Queens—which Earle describes as “easily the most diverse neighborhood in the country.”

The song, written about a year after Earle moved to New York from Texas, carries a message that feels particularly urgent today. The inspiration for the video came last fall when Earle witnessed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Chinatown, where activists mobilized to block their efforts. “Activists got wind of it, and all these people in the neighborhood just kept blocking ICE out, blocking them out, until they finally gave up,” Earle recalls. He was further inspired after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani echoed the song’s sentiment in his inauguration speech, declaring, “New York will always be a city of immigrants.” Earle also credits Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello for motivating him to act. “I was texting with Bruce, who joined Tom Morello onstage in Minneapolis when all that shit was going down with ICE there,” he says, adding with a laugh, “I was shamed into it by Bruce and Morello.”

Earle initially approached actor Ethan Hawke to direct, but Hawke was busy with the Oscar campaign for the Lorenz Hart biopic “Blue Moon” and then began filming a series. The connection eventually came through actor Bobby Cannavale, who starred with Hawke in “Blue Moon” and with Buscemi in “Boardwalk Empire.” Cannavale suggested Buscemi for the project, leading to a Zoom call between the Steves and Earle’s manager, Danny Goldberg. Buscemi agreed to direct, envisioning a documentary-style, guerrilla shoot that captures the city’s diversity through candid images of people working, playing, and demonstrating. “It’s his love letter to New York,” Buscemi says. “But to hear it now, with mass deportations and ICE—I think the meaning is even more potent.”

The resulting video is a heartfelt collection of scenes from across New York, including a pro-immigration demonstration earlier this year. Earle’s lyrics, like “I don’t need to go travelin’/ Open my door and the world walks in,” resonate deeply in the current political climate. Buscemi emphasizes the universal appeal of the song, stating, “I think anybody can appreciate that song. It doesn’t even need to be political. It’s just human.” The collaboration between these two iconic figures, both longtime New York residents, highlights the enduring power of art to reflect and unite communities in challenging times.