Justin Townes Earle

“Swear I see her in my dreams sometimes
Held up in the middle of the night,
Shakin’ like a pistol in a young man’s hand
There in the pale moonlight.
Standing at the top of that lonely hill
Spared by the company mine,
Is my blue eyed baby with her best dress on
In the shadow of a lonely pine.”

“Lone Pine Hill” from “The Good Life” by Justin Townes Earle

The CD includes an astounding Civil War period song of a soldier’s despair in “Lone Pine Hill.” The gloom of the wayward soldier is a mesmerizing tale, beautifully delivered. Justin was initially afraid to attempt a narrative song. “It took several weeks to get it just right. The Civil War is one of my passions. So I was already drawn to the idea, but I had this fear of writing a story song. I really didn’t want to do it because that is what my dad is known for. I have just never heard any story songs better than his. They are almost perfect, and I really had a fear of trying to compare with that. But, I also discovered that a narrative song is the easiest to write. I wrote about twenty different versions of the song, and then narrowed it down. Always write in pencil,” he laughed.

Other new songs came a bit easier. “What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome” was something that came quickly. It is often the easiest which turns out to be one of the best, as is the case here. This song would fit perfectly in the catalog of Ray Price. “It was one of the last songs I wrote for the record. I wrote it and ‘The Good Life’ in the same day. I started in the morning, just sitting around the house in my underwear all day and finished ‘The Good Life’ at about midnight. My girlfriend went to bed, so I just sat around and kept working. I actually wrote ‘What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome’ in about 15 minutes. I ended up pissing off my girlfriend, because I started playing it really loud when I had finished, and woke her up.”

His finger picking style on guitar is also a blend. “I learned some from dad, who of course learned from Townes [Van Zandt, whom Justin was named after], who learned from Lightnin’ Hopkins. I also have kind of a claw hammer banjo technique I use, which is adapted from what Malcomb Holcombe does, who quite honestly is one of the best songwriters out there today. His hand just kind of flops around almost senselessly, but it is picking out the most precise chord patterns as clean as a whistle. He is amazing to see.”

Justin prefers acoustic over electric guitar, due to the capability of more passion to flow from the strings with his music. “I think in a way it is just me trying to be rebellious against my own generation. Everyone owned an electric guitar. Then there was a brief period after Nirvana unplugged came out that kids started wanting acoustic, but it faded really fast. On electric, your tone is completely controlled by a knob, where on acoustic you can affect your sound by the way you play or fret. It is just an attempt to be a purist for me. All the music I listen to is acoustic. It just has a different feel to it,” states Earle. “It is very rare you run into a player that is magic on electric guitar, like Kenny Vaughn or Jeff Buckley. Buckley is the only solo electric player I have seen that could pull it off. He had a great operatic voice that helped. Whenever I go somewhere and see someone walk up on stage with an electric guitar all by themselves, my first instinct is to find the door and leave immediately.”

Justin had a lot to overcome even to get to this point in his life. His dependency on drugs almost ruined everything. “I wrote a lot of songs, and played a lot of places. Problem was I was too messed up to remember any of them. I came to a point where I had to get control of myself if I wanted to amount to anything. I have been clean ever since, and have more fun remembering things. Drugs can really take a hold of you if you let them. I know too many who are still struggling with that addiction.”

Justin is already planning for his next release. “I got 4 songs up on the board right now, which I think will stand the test of time,” he says. “It will be a similar blend to ‘The Good Life’ I think. I hope to always have that type of a blend.”

When asked about a possible bluegrass song in his near future, he stated “I may. I have been thinking about it for the next CD, maybe throwing in a really hard traditional bluegrass track. It is something I have always loved. If I end up doing it, it will be more of a Doc or Merle Watson kind of spin with more of a blues edge to it, than the super clean direction of say a McCoury.”

Justin has a killer tour schedule already lined up. (Check out his myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/justintownesearle for details.) With a somewhat limited catalog of his own music right now, Justin enjoys mixing it up a bit with covers of traditional country. “I like to do some George Jones or Merle, just to show everyone I can, plus I like them,” he laughs. “I also throw in some Gram Parsons, Townes, and some blues from Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin’ Hopkins to keep it mixed a bit.”

One artist you will not hear him cover is Woody Guthrie. “He is just too perfect to cover, at least to me. He is the patron saint of singer songwriters. He invented this thing in a lot of ways. Before him, most people were not writing their own music. They were only doing refurbished versions of old songs. For his time, he has one of the largest catalogs of music. Songwriting used to be a cut and paste job. Dylan and Springsteen are perhaps the best these days at taking what Woody left behind, and building on it. You got to take it and build, or you end up sounding like a Fred Durst.”

Trends are somewhat cyclical. Wait long enough, and what was old-fashioned becomes the new fad. Perhaps that is the role Justin Townes Earle is to fill. He just may be the best man for the job, to deliver traditional music back to the forefront. His new CD is definitely a positive step in that direction. His live performances are a time capsule from the past, and maybe the best of what our future holds in store.

Author: John Walker