Justin Townes Earle, Midnight at the Movies
Earle lives up to his namesake with a record as luxurious as a glass of porch-brewed sweet tea
Most country music that's not pop-polished or staunchly traditional gets slotted into the much-reviled "alt-" ghetto, but Justin Townes Earle (son of Steve Earle, and named after Townes Van Zandt) makes modern country music that defies categorization. Heavily influenced by his Nashville forefathers — Buck Owens, Hank Williams, Chet Atkins — and by folksingers like Bruce Springsteen and Woody Guthrie, Earle is an effortless vocalist, and his third album, Midnight at the Movies, is as soft and luxurious as a glass of porch-brewed sweet tea.
Earle has relocated to New York City from Tennessee, but the most visceral — and enticing — part of Midnight at the Movies is its gentle southern pacing: Even "What I Mean to You," with its prancing piano and lonesome steel guitar, feels preternaturally effortless. In "Mama's Eyes," Earle croons and chokes (his vocals can be eerily similar to Ryan Adams '— especially on "Can't Hardly Wait" — although they lack Adams 'acidity and desperation), directly addressing his lineage: "I am my father's son / I've never known when to shut up." Lyrically, Earle spits a charming mix of self-skewering barbs (he spent most of his adolescence strung out on heroin), and vivid details; like all good country singers, Earle is a storyteller above all else, and Midnight at the Movies is deliciously specific.
