Justin Townes Earle

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Justin Townes Earle at the Byron Bay Blues Festival (2015)

Justin Townes Earle (born January 4, 1982 in Nashville , Tennessee , † August 20, 2020 there ) was an American singer-songwriter and musician . The middle name of the son of the alternative country musician and writer Steve Earle pays homage to the singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt , mentor and role model of his father.

life and career

Justin Townes Earle grew up in South Nashville with his mother, Carol Ann Hunter Earle. When he was two years old, his parents separated. Justin Townes initially lived with his mother. Carol Ann made a living for herself and her son doing odd jobs. Due to the constantly changing jobs, the living situation was unsteady and characterized by frequent changes of residence. In 1994, Justin Townes moved in with his father after he overcame his drug addiction and reorganized his life. Justin Townes made trips to Memphis to see concerts by punk bands he liked, dropped out of school, hunted around Chicago for a while (which he had to leave because, according to himself, he owed money to the wrong people) and like his father before, increasingly fell under the spell of alcohol and other drugs . The latter eventually led to his being kicked out of his father's backing band, for which he had worked temporarily as a keyboardist and guitarist . He completed his musical apprenticeship and traveling years with appearances in coffee shops and as a member of two Nashville bands - the rock- oriented distributors and the more ragtime and bluegrass group The Swindlers.

After getting his problems with alcohol and other drugs under control, Justin Townes Earle embarked on an independent career as a country musician and singer-songwriter. In 2007 his debut album Yuma was released - an EP with six tracks and musically strongly influenced by folk , blues and country. As with the following albums, Yuma appeared on the Chicago label Bloodshot Records . The following year, The Good Life - a full-length album produced by RS Field and Steve Poulton. As with the follow-up albums, The Good Life reached respectable positions in the charts : No. 70 on the country charts of Billboard Magazine . Harlem River Blues from 2010 reached number 40 on the cross-genre list, the follow-up album Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now (2012) reached number 62. Only album number three - Midnight at the Movies from 2009 - was less commercially successful In 2009 Justin Townes Earle completed the Big Surprise Tour with Gillian Welch , David Rawlings, the Old Crow Medicine Show and the Felice Brothers . In September of the same year he received an Americana Music Award for "New and Emerging Artist of the Year".

In retrospect, Harlem River Blues (2010) and the title track, which was released as a single , proved to be the point from which Justin Townes Earle was continuously the focus of audience attention and the media. Together with his father, he completed a guest appearance in the same year HBO - drama series Treme - an episode story that survival in the by Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans has to content. Justin Townes and his father had already recorded a duet of the Townes Van Zandt ballad Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold for Steve Earle's throwback album Townes last year . Due to a related violence dispute with a club owner in Chicago Earle was 16 September 2010 arrested and, public drunkenness and civil disorder under for assault charges made. After release on bail and the cancellation of concerts that had yet to be announced, a stay in a rehabilitation clinic followed and the now consistently pursued renunciation of alcohol and other drugs. In 2012, Justin Townes produced Earle Wanda Jackson's album Unfinished Business . His fifth album, Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now , followed in 2012 - musically shaped by the turning away from folk and country and the move towards Memphis soul and blues tones.

The two follow-up albums - Single Mothers (2014) and Absent Fathers (2015) - were conceived as an examination of one's own biography. They were originally supposed to appear as a double album. Due to differences with Earle's new label, Vagrant Records , they were released one after the other as a single album. In 2017 the eighth studio album was released - Kids in the Street . This time New West Records acted as the label - the record company that also released his father's albums. The producer was Mike Mogis ( Bright Eyes , First Aid Kid). Unlike Earle's previous albums, the recordings were not made in Nashville, but in Omaha , Nebraska . In terms of sound, the production was more oriented towards modern forms of performance from rock and pop and led a bit far away from Earle's classic folk-country style. In June 2017 Justin Townes Earle performed four gigs in Germany with an accompanying musician . Stops were in Berlin , Hamburg , Cologne and Frankfurt am Main .

Justin Townes Earle had been married since 2013. In 2017 a daughter was born - Etta St. James Earle, named after the blues musician Etta James . He lived with his family on the US west coast in Portland , Oregon .

Townes Earle was found dead in his apartment on August 20, 2020 after friends alerted police that they hadn't heard from him for several days. The local police believe a drug overdose is the cause of death.

Self-assessment and reviews

Justin Townes Earle was shaped in his work by various artists. At 18, Earle said in a portrait story by Ox-Fanzine , he was fascinated by the artists of the Beat Generation - people like Jack Kerouac , Herbie Hancock and Gregory Corso . He was particularly taken with the atmosphere of New York's Times Square at that time - hence his preference for cinemas , which played a major role as locations in the beatnik novels. As far as the rebellious attitude is concerned, country and punk are very similar - especially the biographies of the two genre milestones Johnny Cash and Sid Vicious . The difference is often that punk musicians die early, while country musicians usually live longer and go their way with a smile. The country music mainstream has increasingly adapted to other prevailing styles over time. Earle: “When Hank Williams was alive he was the greatest pop star of all time. When George Jones was at the height of his career, he was the pop star par excellence in the USA and topped the charts. Today people in the US hear the most terrible variety of pop music imaginable. "

Musically he was strongly influenced by blues, hillbilly , country and bluegrass. Musical role models are Townes Van Zandt, from whom it takes its name; also Hank Williams and Charlie Poole . According to his own statements, Southern Soul is also close as a music genre. In contrast to his father Steve, he sees himself as less political . The relationship with him, according to Justin Townes Earle, was never very deep. Earle: “My father gave me a lot of bad things to do when I was little. Steve Earle was definitely not the role model one would want a child to be. Above all, it was my mother who explained to me what was right and what was wrong. Your ideas shaped me from an early age. ”But now, Earle says, he gets along well with his father. In addition, both had agreed not to feature each other, so that everyone could do their own thing.

In the media, Justin Townes Earle is often assigned to the sub-genre Americana. In the course of an artist performance, Single Mothers was presented by the music portal Küchensessions.de as a typical Americana album. The website classicrock.net classified the 2017 release New Kids in the Street as an Americana album. The Austrian daily Der Standard wrote on the occasion of the appearance of Absent Fathers: “Townes rumbles through various valleys of woe in intimate ballads without ever being too thick. He tells little sad stories of outsiders and loners against their will. Every now and then a song winks at us, signaling that not everything burns as hot on the tongue as it was cooked in life. ”As a summary, the article stated that the father's wealth of variants is missing something in his son. Justin is good - but he also looks a bit good. Although you have to be so comfortable when you have an old junkie as your father - who is amazed that he has survived his life to this day.

In 2013 the documentary filmmaker Marieke Schroeder portrayed the new country generation Nashville in the film Country Roads . In addition to Justin Townes Earle, John Carter Cash Junior and the singer-songwriter and alternative country musician Caitlin Rose were also portrayed. In addition to the changes in the city's music business, the film also addressed the social contrasts in the Appalachian region and the country music home state of Tennessee, as well as the demands that the portrayed artists associate with their music.

Discography (selection)

Studio albums

year Title
music label 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
US US Country Country
2008 The Good Life
Bloodshot Records 		- Country70 (2 weeks)
Country
First published: March 25, 2008
2009 Midnight at the Movies
Bloodshot Records 		- -
First published: March 3, 2009
2010 Harlem River Blues
Bloodshot Records 		US47 (2 weeks)
US 		-
First published: September 13, 2010
2012 Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now
Bloodshot Records 		US62 (1 week)
US 		-
First published: March 26, 2012
2014 Single Mothers
Loose Music / Vagrant Records 		US56 (1 week)
US 		-
First published: September 9, 2014
2015 Absent Fathers
Loose Music / Vagrant Records 		- -
First published: January 13, 2015
2017 Kids in the Street
New West Records 		US161 (1 week)
US 		-
First published: May 26, 2017
2019 The Saint of Lost Causes
New West Records 		- -
First published: May 24, 2019

Web links

Commons : Justin Townes Earle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ben Sisario: Justin Townes Earle, singer-songwriter in Father's Footsteps, Dies at 38. In: The New York Times , August 24, 2020. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  2. ↑ Evan Minsker: Justin Townes Earle Dead at 38. In: pitchfork.com. Pitchfork Media , August 24, 2020, accessed on August 24, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Interview with Justin Townes Earle: Like father like son? , detektor.fm, January 30, 2015
  4. ^ A b c Justin Townes Earle: Kids In The Street , Thomas Waldherr, Country Music Magazine, May 22, 2017
  5. ↑ Justin Townes Earle in Quasimodo: Back then in Nashville , Jochen Overbeck, Tagesspiegel, June 21, 2017
  6. ^ A b c Justin Townes Earle , Bob Doerschuk, Country Music News, July 10, 2008
  7. ↑ Justin Townes Earle , Mark Deming, biographical article on allmusic.com, accessed October 27, 2017.
  8. ↑ The Big Surprise Tour: A Friendly Stage for Roots Music , Nate Chinen, New York Times, August 7, 2009
  9. ^ A b Justin Townes Earle live in Germany , Country Music News, April 28, 2017
  10. ↑ a b Kitchen Session # 236: Justin Townes Earle , kuechensessions.de, June 21, 2017 (Engl.)
  11. ↑ Dad-to-be Justin Townes Earle looks back at Nashville in new record , Skip Anderson, No Depression, May 17, 2017.
  12. ↑ a b c d Justin Townes Earle: Kids In The Street ( Memento from October 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), radiobremen, Popwelt, July 16, 2017
  13. ↑ Lilly Wolter: Justin Townes Earle is said to have died of a drug overdose. In: Rolling Stone, accessed online August 27, 2020 | 9:50 pm
  14. ↑ a b c Justin Townes Earle: From Junkie to New Hank Williams , Robert Buchmann, Ox-Fanzine, Issue # 89, April / May 2010
  15. ↑ Review: Justin Townes Earle: Kids In The Street , Gunther Matejka, classicrock.net, May 26, 2017
  16. ↑ Album of the week: Justin Townes Earles “Absent Fathers” , Der Standard, January 16, 2015
  17. ↑ Country Roads: The Heartbeat of America , programm.ARD.de, February 13, 2017
  18. ↑ Chart sources: US
  19. ↑ Justin Townes Earle. rateyourmusic.com, accessed August 26, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Earle, Justin Townes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Earle, Justin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American songwriter, country and roots rock musician
DATE OF BIRTH 4th January 1982
PLACE OF BIRTH Nashville , Tennessee , United States
DATE OF DEATH 20th August 2020
Place of death Nashville , Tennessee , United States