WHISPERING PINES @ echo

Justin Townes Earle

Justin Townes Earle has some pretty big shoes to fill, considering that he shares his name with two of American music’s best songwriters: Townes Van Zandt, and his father, Steve Earle. However, the younger Earle shies away from the musical styles of these two men, creating his own sound that is an amalgam of Depression-Era folk, classic country, pre-War blues, and early rock ‘n’ roll. On his first full length record, The Good Life, Justin Townes Earle delivers the best debut roots music has seen since Old Crow Medicine Show hit the big time with OCMS in 2004. The album somehow manages to sound like Earle looks on the cover: street urchin skinny and rocker tattooed, fixing you with both an all-knowing stare and smartass smirk.

The album opens with “Hard Livin’”, an uptempo, Paul Burch meets Langhorne Slim number that features the old standby of country music: pain in the ass womenfolk. Catchy, clever, and highly danceable for those who do that sort of thing, it sets the stage for the rest of the record, an amazing collection of songs that flow from one to the other, something that is sadly lacking in many of the albums released in the age of iPod shuffling. – Popmatters

with:
Sarah Gayle Meech
Whispering Pines