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Music is a notoriously difficult family business. If your parent is a star, odds are pretty good that despite your best efforts, you won’t be. Just ask Jakob Dylan. Or Sean Lennon. So with Steve Earle as a dad, Justin Townes Earle has his work cut out for him. Fortunately he has all the tools he needs to escape his dad’s shadow and create his own career. And with three solo albums under his belt at age 27, he’s well on his way.
Justin Townes Earle has two things that give him a great chance of breaking through: a knack for writing genuine, down-to-earth songs that everyone can relate to, and the perfect whiskey-soaked voice for the brand of country and blues he practices. It’s amazing to hear as much depth and character in a voice so young as Earle’s. Of course, since he’s been playing since he was a teenager, and has already been through the “hard-living” phase of a musician’s career. He was fired from his father’s band when his drug habit started interfering with his music. With that kick in the ass he cleaned up his act and got to work.
That work seems to be forming a new brand of American roots music. Each generation of storytellers listens to what came before them, what’s going on around them, and what they see coming ahead of them, and blends them into their own style. Johnny Cash listened to The Beatles and Dylan and incorporated what they were doing into his music. Earle takes the music of Hank Williams, Robert Johnson, his namesake Townes Van Zandt, Jimmy Reed, and his father, and weaves in modern influences like Kurt Cobain and The Replacements. The resulting musical stew is comforting and filling.
Justin Townes Earl just released his third album, Midnight at the Movies, on Bloodshot records.
“Halfway to Jackson”
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The type of two-step shuffle that, when combined with a harmonica, just has to be about a train. And of course there’s a train in it. So it would be tempting to pass it off as just another train song. But Earle weaves a spurned lover story around the standard train song platform that gives it depth and character. Instead of the typical “this train is taking me home to my baby” story, he flips it into a “thank goodness this train is taking me away and I’m never coming back” story. It’s 20th century songcraft meets 21st century cynicism. Or possibly just a song about a train.
“Mama’s Eyes”
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It may not be possible to choose which traits you get from your parents, but you see how they’ve dealt with those traits and try to learn something.
Videos
“So Different Blues” (Mance Lipscomb cover), on LaudroMatinee
“Hard Livin’”, Live
“They Killed John Henry”, on LaudroMatinee
Links
Buy Midnight At The Movies
MySpace
