It’s been four eventful years since Justin Townes Earle was watched
by just eight paying customers at the delightfully named Marr’s Bar in
Worcester. A humble persona and commitment to playing high quality American
roots music had him earmarked as someone to develop a successful independent
career and not just be the son of a legend, with an iconic middle name. In the
subsequent years, there has been four acclaimed albums, numerous visits to the
UK, consecutive emerging artist recognitions at the Americana awards (strange
but true), a brief return to rehab and a vastly increased fan base in this
country. On this, his second trip to Britain in 2012, the Cosmic American
promotion booked him for the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham and the Friday night
slot in this lively venue attracted a couple of hundred punters of varying
demographic composition. They in turn witnessed a very different Justin Townes
Earle to the one who made tentative steps to crack the UK market a few years
back. He has evolved musically from one, Nashville influenced, with a country
sound to record and tour with a heavy blues dominated album. Striding onto the
stage for this solo show in a Woody Guthrie-esque attire of peaked cap and
austere suit, he looked a million miles from music city as he continues a quest
to find the soul of American roots music. His vocal talents and guitar playing
are perfectly at home at this blues pit stop on his journey and ninety minutes
later the sizeable crowd gave him a positive reception of approval of which his
still humble persona was appreciative.
The relationship between Justin and his father, Steve, has
often been difficult and on this particular evening there were several negative
references. The introduction to the tribute song to his mother ‘Mama’s Eyes’ from the MIDNIGHT AT THE
MOVIES album reminded everybody of his absent father during the early years.
Also from that album, the track ‘They
Killed John Henry’ was accompanied by a statement proclaiming his
grandfather, a far greater man than either his father or he would ever be. You
do get a sense of a complex and flawed character when seeing Justin live but many
a musical genius has emerged from such minds and the depth and creativity from
his song writing is heading in this direction.
Some of the best songs performed on the evening came from the
HARLEM RIVER BLUES album where Justin stopped off in New York on his journey
from country to blues. The title track, ‘One
Night in Brooklyn’ and ‘Wanderin’’
are all welcome additions to any Justin Townes Earle set list. The live version
of ‘Harlem River Blues’ was slowed
down from the one on the album but its tremendous chorus hook line holds any
performance of this song together. As
indicated earlier we didn’t have the American music history lesson that has been
such a fascinating feature of previous shows attended and this was highlighted by
launching straight into the encore number, a version of Bo Carter’s ‘Your Biscuits Are Big Enough For Me’ which
would surely have some story surrounding its selection. The musical development of Justin Townes Earle is very much work in progress and who knows where his talents will take him next. The good news is his UK fan base is growing and eagerly wait for the next stopping point on this journey through American roots music. This should convince him to continue to bring the fruition of his development to the UK on an ongoing basis.
