Justin Townes Earle – Absent Fathers
Long streak of blue country brilliance and a companion-piece to his recent Single Mothers album.
There’s a beauty to Earle the younger’s work whether he’s inclining to blues or soul or, right here, a folkie kind of pared-down country. It’s the flow. The lazy-river current of sinuous verbo-melodic if-conversation-had-a-tune he pours out and over you. It’s subtle, it won’t grab you by the lapels, much less the jockstrap or G-string, but it does carry that twangy tang of life: viz picky-plunky nagging match Least I Got The Blues (“You’re no woman, a woman’s got heart”), torrential lament Farther From Me (“haunted by the ghost of a child’s hopes”), or the teeth-grittingly grooving surrender to paternal failure Call Ya Momma (“Tell her I ain’t doin’ you right”).
Like a musical Relate, the vinyl version pairs Absent Fathers with the recent Single Mothers and close textual study may reveal – or tease – about how much Earle family (auto)biography lies within.
Listen to the aforementioned Call Ya Momma ahead of the album's release on January 13.
For more head to www.justintownesearle.com