Justin Townes Earle

Biography

Justin Townes Earle (January 4, 1982 – August 20, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. After his debut EP, Yuma (2007), he released eight full-length albums. He was recognized with an Americana Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2009 and for Song of the Year in 2011 for "Harlem River Blues×Harlem River Blues13 September 2010 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracksA1Harlem River BluesA2One More Night in BrooklynA3Move Over MamaA4Workin’ for the MTAA5Wanderin’B1Slippin’ and Slidin’B2Christchurch WomanB3Learning to CryB4Ain’t Waitin’B5Rogers ParkB6Harlem River Blues (reprise)". His father is alternative country artist Steve Earle.

Early life

Earle grew up in South Nashville, Tennessee, with his mother, Carol Ann Hunter Earle. His father, Steve Earle, named him in honor of his own mentor, singer and songwriter Townes Van Zandt. When Justin was two, his father left the family, but after Steve Earle got sober in 1994 he returned. The younger Earle dropped out of school, occasionally touring with and working for his father, eventually moving to eastern Tennessee with other songwriters. Like his father, he battled addiction beginning in his early teens.

Career

Earle played in two Nashville bands: the rock band the Distributors and the ragtime and bluegrass combo the Swindlers. He spent some time as guitarist and keyboardist for his father's touring band the Dukes. He developed a hybrid style of music mixing folk, blues, and country.

Albums

In 2007, Earle released a six-song EP called Yuma. He signed a contract with Chicago's Bloodshot Records and released an album called The Good Life×The Good Life25 March 2008 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Hard Livin’2:482The Good Life2:473Who Am I to Say3:084Lone Pine Hill3:035South Georgia Sugar Babe2:476What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome3:327Turn Out My Lights3:328Lonesome and You3:299Ain’t Glad I’m Leaving2:3210Far Away in Another Town3:05 in 2008. In 2009, he released the album Midnight at the Movies×Midnight at the Movies3 March 2009 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Midnight at the Movies3:222What I Mean to You2:573They Killed John Henry2:474Mama’s Eyes2:195Dirty Rag0:356Can’t Hardly Wait2:487Black Eyed Suzy2:198Poor Fool3:009Halfway to Jackson3:2910Someday I’ll Be Forgiven for This3:0111Walk Out2:0712Here We Go Again4:05. In 2010, he released the album Harlem River Blues×Harlem River Blues13 September 2010 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracksA1Harlem River BluesA2One More Night in BrooklynA3Move Over MamaA4Workin’ for the MTAA5Wanderin’B1Slippin’ and Slidin’B2Christchurch WomanB3Learning to CryB4Ain’t Waitin’B5Rogers ParkB6Harlem River Blues (reprise), followed by the album Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now in 2012. From 2014 to 2017, Earle released a "family trilogy" of albums, comprising Single Mothers×Single Mothers29 August 2014 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracks1Worried Bout the Weather3:362Single Mothers2:503My Baby Drives2:134Today and a Lonely Night2:565Picture in a Drawer4:106Wanna Be a Stranger2:357White Gardenias2:388Time Shows Fools2:579It’s Cold in This House3:1110Burning Pictures2:4811White Gardenias (live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop)3:40 (2014), Absent Fathers×Absent Fathers12 January 2015 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1Farther From Me3:452Why2:263Least I Got the Blues2:314Call Ya Momma3:385Day and Night4:246Round the Bend2:337When the One You Love Loses Faith4:128Slow Monday2:199Someone Will Pay2:1310Looking for a Place to Land3:29 (2015), and Kids in the Street×Kids in the Street26 May 2017 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Champagne Corolla3:382Maybe a Moment3:063What's She Crying For3:54415-254:035Kids in the Street3:536Faded Valentine3:457What's Goin' Wrong3:258Short Hair Woman2:509Same Old Stagolee3:4210If I Was the Devil2:3511Trouble Is3:2212There Go a Fool4:33 (2017). His final album, The Saint of Lost Causes×The Saint of Lost Causes17 May 2019 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1The Saint of Lost Causes4:512Ain’t Got No Money3:053Mornings in Memphis4:324Don’t Drink the Water4:415Frightened by the Sound3:456Flint City Shake It3:447Over Alameda4:098Pacific Northwestern Blues3:379Appalachian Nightmare5:3710Say Baby4:3011Ahi esta mi nina4:0612Talking to Myself2:55, was released in May 2019 on New West Records, produced by Adam Bednarik and Earle. Earle also produced Wanda Jackson's album Unfinished Business in 2012 recorded and mixed by Adam Bednarik.
In August 2024, All In: Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years), a compilation of unheard demos and rare material was released on New West Records. It was compiled and produced by Adam Bednarik and Kim Buie.

Appearances

Earle played the Grand Ole Opry in 2008, WSM Radio, South By Southwest (2008–2010, 2012), the Beacon Theatre (May 2009), the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion (September 2009), Bonnaroo (2009) Bumbershoot (2010), the East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival (Australia, 2012), the Bowery Ballroom (March 2010), the Winnipeg Folk Festival (July 2008), and the Nelsonville Music Festival (2008 and 2011).
In 2009, Earle co-billed The Big Surprise Tour with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Old Crow Medicine Show, and The Felice Brothers.
In 2012, he appeared in an episode of the HBO television series Treme with his father.

Honors and distinctions

In September 2009, Earle received an Americana Music Award for New and Emerging Artist of the Year.
In 2011, Earle received the Americana Music Award in the Song of the Year category for "Harlem River Blues×Harlem River Blues13 September 2010 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 11 tracksA1Harlem River BluesA2One More Night in BrooklynA3Move Over MamaA4Workin’ for the MTAA5Wanderin’B1Slippin’ and Slidin’B2Christchurch WomanB3Learning to CryB4Ain’t Waitin’B5Rogers ParkB6Harlem River Blues (reprise)". His album of the same name has been described as having a "gently flowing, urban Americana sound, with horns, organ and tangy electric guitar". That year he also contributed a cover of "Maybe Baby" on the 2011 tribute album Rave on Buddy Holly, and played Newport Folk Festival and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.
Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now was listed at album number 37 on Rolling Stone's list of the top 50 albums of 2012, with the annotation as follows: "The son of country-rock renegade Steve Earle has grown into a songwriter to rival his dad."
On January 4, 2021, Steve Earle & the Dukes released the album J.T., a tribute to Justin Townes Earle.
On January 4, 2023, a tribute concert was held at the Ryman Auditorium in memory of Justin. Performers included Steve Earle & The Dukes and special guests: Shooter Jennings, Bonnie Whitmore, Amanda Shires, Willy and Cody Braun, Buddy Miller, Ben Nichols (Lucero), Dustin Welch, Elizabeth Cook, Emmylou Harris, Jason Isbell, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Joe Pug, Jon Langford, Lilly Hiatt, Scotty Melton, Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart.
In a 2026 interview with Garden & Gun, Earle's biographer Jonathan Bernstein noted how he helped create a musical environment in which roots-minded artists like Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett and Sierra Ferrell could thrive and become major recording and touring artists. “Justin was someone who quietly has been a major influence and years ahead of his time commercially,” Bernstein said.

Personal life and death

Earle began using illicit drugs at age 12 and continued for many years. In his words, "I discovered very fast that my way of doing things was going to get me in trouble, and I kept going with it, because I believed the myth for a long time, and I believed I had to destroy myself to make great art."
He went to rehabilitation clinics nine times followed by periods of sobriety. He relapsed in September 2010 and again in 2017.
Earle moved to New York City in 2009, but returned to Nashville in 2014. He married Jenn Marie Maynard in 2013 and he and his wife lived on the West Coast. Their only child, a daughter named Etta, was born in June 2017.
Earle died on August 20, 2020, in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 38, from an accidental overdose of fentanyl-laced cocaine.