By Jon Stone

It’s Friday night at 1:14 and I’m waiting for Deer Tick to metamorphose into Deervana. This after just witnessing a two-hour set from My Morning Jacket followed closely by an hour and a half from Arcade Fire. My legs hurt. I’m sunburned and dirty. I’m weary. I am so incredibly happy. What a day it’s been.

Oh, the dust.

(It’s hard not to make these reviews into a travel-log. Skip around at will.)

Sharon Van Etten – The last time I saw SVE was at Pitchfork last year doing a solo show to a relatively sparse crowd. I remember feeling underwhelmed. I’d just seen Cary Ann Hearst the night before and, really, it was an unfair comparison (please go see Cary’s band, though: Shovels and Rope!). I’ve spent a lot more time listening to Van Etten’s work since then and was genuinely excited to see her again. This time, full band in tow, she was fantastic. She played a good number of songs from last year’s EP as well as a smattering of older and brand new material. In the former category, we heard “Tornado” from her first full-length, Because I Was in Love housing these great lyrics: “I’m a tornado, you are the dust. You’re all around and you’re inside.” Oh Sharon, the dust. The dust! In the latter, she played the new and great “All I Can.” We’re all looking forward to the her next release.

Ben Sollee – I’ve been a fan of Sollee’s for a year or two and loved his record Dear Companion with Daniel Martin Moore. His new album Inclusions picks up where the duo left off and after spinning it a few times, I’ve been anxious for a chance to see him. I should have been more anxious. He and his band are so, so good. I was moved. He has assembled a really lovely group of musicians to accent his cello work, including a two piece horn section and the phenomenal Phoebe Hunt on violin singing harmony vocals. Sollee’s talent as a songwriter and musician, though, is something else.  If you’ve yet to hear his new record, check out the song “Bible Belt” which captures Sollee at his subtle best. The dissonant horns on that song against its subtle, agnostic critique of southern religious expectations is some of the best writing I’ve heard this year. When I heard it live, I was, as I said, moved. The little yellow flowers they passed around during the closing number summed up the sentiment perfectly, I think.

Justin Townes Earle – When I saw JTE earlier in the year, I knew it was going to be tough to ever pass up an opportunity to see him again. Not only is he amazing, but the guy not unlike a trainwreck, you can’t look away once he’s on stage, as if any moment, he may burst into flames. Using the images of fire and train-carnage to describe the charisma of a musician is odd, but that pretty much sums it up. He played several of his best, never in the same tempo as the records and always with something witty between: “I’ve never been known to stay long under the porch” or “My mamma knows perfectly well that I’m here today, but I know that right now she’s up in Nashville wondering where the hell I am” or the less-subtle, “I really love me some drugs”. The man is an entertainer.

Here’s a kind of crazy story that feels not a little bit tabloid, but I’ll relate it anyway: I’m standing there watching JTE and there’s a guy with his wife/girlfriend/sister in front of me that looks so much like Justin he could be his brother. After the set, I plucked up my courage and asked him if he had any relation to Earle. The man (and he didn’t look a day under 20) said simply, “Yeah. Son!” JTE was born in 1982. Everything Earle has ever sung hard living is absolutely true.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band film screening: Live From Preservation Hall: A Louisiana Fairytale, directed by Danny Clinch – I’m all mixed up about this one. Abigail Washburn, whom I adore, was playing her main set at the same time as this film was being screened, but there was a promise on the bill that Jim James would be making an appearance with the actual Preservation Hall band, and since AW is playing on Saturday, I took the chance. And here’s the thing: the documentary was fantastic. It is both a short history of Preservation Hall and its revolving cast and a chronicle of My Morning Jacket’s collaboration with the band a few years ago. In it, Jim James is portrayed in the way I’d like to imagine he is: down-to-earth, kind, selfless… not the typical arena rock star. So, after the film (and the theatre was packed with folks hoping to see James close up), everyone is waiting for Jim to come out. The Preservation Hall Jazz band does and they are, of course, amazing. But after their two-song mini set they leave the small riser and no James. After a few moments of awkward standing around, a woman comes out and says he decided to skip it. “He’s hot and wants to focus on tonight’s show”. I was bummed and it created this paradox of who was depicted on screen and who Jim James actually is: a rock star who does rock-starish things like skip a two-song performance for an audience full of (likely) his biggest fans at the fest. It sucked. Whatever.

Ray LaMontagne – after wandering over and through the wide expanse of land and people that were gathered to see the Decemberists at the main stage, I decided I couldn’t deal with further paradox (really? 10,000 people during the hot of the day lazily standing around [or sitting or laying out or whatever] listening to the Decemberists? I couldn’t stomach it – and that is nothing against the band. I need to see them play a real show). Ray LaMontagne offered the perfect solution. In true LaMontagne fashion, he and his band played with no stage lights making those of us standing in the distance reliant on the new jumbo-tron on the Which stage, but also more inclined to just sit back and be soothed. I wasn’t a huge fan of his last record, but had a hunch it would sound sweet live. It does. The Pariah Dogs, as his band has now been christened, are an amazing bunch of journeyman musicians. Two (yes, two!) pedal steel player among them (they take turns) and a woman on bass who looks and sounds as though she’s played her whole long life. They played several songs off the new record (I’m going to have to go back and listen again), including “Repo Man”, “New York City is Killing Me”, and “Devil’s in the Jukebox” as well as some classics, “Trouble” and “Jolene” among them. It was just what I needed and I will see Ray and his band any time I can. Such talent and class.

I’m going to break from my travel-log here at the end and try to say something meaningful about seeing My Morning Jacket and then Arcade Fire and then Deer Tick playing a Deervana set. I mean, that may be enough. That happened. Set lists? I’ve got those (see below).

Despite my love for the small and intimate setting, despite the hypocrisy of not wanting to watch the Decemberists on the main stage… despite it all, there is just nothing like seeing a band like My Morning Jacket or Arcade Fire play to thousands upon thousands of people. To be a member of the chorus of voices singing along to “Rebellion (Lies)” or bobbing heads to “Off the Record” – this is an experience that has made an industry out of coliseum rock but is one particularly suited to Bonnaroo. It’s hard to say much more than that about the seeing two of my favorite bands play back to back other than I feel blessed by the privilege of watching a caped Jim James shake his rock-star mane and play that Flying V and love (love!) to see the big smiles on the faces of Win Butler and his crazed band of ex-pats and Canadians. So fun.

And then, Deervana? Well, folks I’m gonna let that one remain a mystery best experienced for yourself.

MMJ – Victory Dance / Circuital / Off the Record / Gideon  / Anytime / First Light / Mahgeetah / Outta My System / Golden  / You Wanna Freak Out / I’m Amazed / Slow/ Slow Tune / Steam Engine / Smokin From Shootin (with Ben Sollee) / Run Thru (End)  / Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Pt. 2  / Good Intentions / Wordless Chorus  / Holdin On To Black Metal  / Highly Suspicious (with Preservation Hall Jazz Band) / Dancefloors (with Preservation Hall Jazz Band) / One Big Holiday

Arcade Fire – Ready to Start / Keep the Car Running  / Neighborhood #2 (Laika)  / No Cars Go  / City With No Children  / Rococo  / Haïti  / Intervention  / The Suburbs  / The Suburbs (Continued)  / Suburban War  / Month of May  / Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)  / We Used to Wait  / Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)  / Rebellion (Lies)  Encore: Wake Up /Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

In our recent interview with Justin Townes Earle, he had this to say about his stage performance:

“There are plenty of people that can write songs as good as I can but the one thing that I hold over a lot of songwriters is that I can burn you up in a solo acoustic performance. I’m very proud of that fact. I want it fucking bullet proof. That’s how you stick in the memory, that’s how you stick in people’s memory, you gotta grab their attention, then they’ll listen to fucking songs.”

Friday’s show in Bloomington, IL wasn’t solo – Bryn Davies and Josh Hedley joined him on stand-up bass and fiddle, respectively – but that “burn you up/bullet proof” mentality carries over regardless. Earle was, in every respect, the tallest man in the room at Bloomington’s Six Strings Club — and his lank was easily matched by his wit and charisma. Apt, then, that the club is an honest-to-goodness honky-tonk. It’s hard to imagine a regular venue being able to contain that personality.

It was my first time seeing Earle play live, but it’s true what they say: JTE is a natural showman. Over the course of the evening his between-song quips reveal an archetypal narrative for the hard-livin’ traveling singer-songwriter. This arc includes nostalgic tributes (to his namesake Townes Van Zandt, to Woody Guthrie with “I Don’t Care” and his grandfather with “They Killed John Henry”), portraits of both of his parents (“Momma’s Eyes”), and, most of all, tales of his chemical and sexual conquests/defeats (see “South Georgia Sugar Babe” and “Ain’t Glad I’m Leaving”). Reproducing those asides here would be robbed of both context and color, but it suffices to say that the only thing Justin likes more than booze and cocaine are “fried chicken and the young ladies” (“Ain’t Waitin’”).

Earle has mastered the balance between the old and new. He sings in the traditional tongue of a country gentleman but those same songs bite with modern teeth – and they bite hard. Earle’s live sound is punctuated with an almost-brash acoustic guitar (“Travis”) picking style. He startled the audience with the volume of that heavy thumb with his opener, “Move Over Mamma” – a song that moves away from the two-step it appears as on the record and into a steady, plucked out rambler. Most of the songs get a similar deconstruction in their transfer from the Nashville production. Earle often slows down the tempos making sure, as was mentioned above, that the audience is paying attention. This formula also allows him to take full advantage of the instrumentation and harmony vocals of his two companions. The result is measured but unrelenting intensity.  I was also impressed by the crowd at Six Strings. From what I read, JTE shows seem notorious for obnoxious hecklers, but this crowd couldn’t have been more respectful — lots of facial hair and hunting caps and not a single one of them ironic.

My favorite moment of the night hit at around mid-set when JTE invited Hedley and Davies to take a short break and picked up the Gibson J-45 I’d been eyeing on his rack. From there, he started “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” a lovely bluesy waltz on the new record with a sweet horn arrangement that keeps a lyrically heavy song (“Why do I try my luck? I should never touch the stuff”) a bit lighter. Bereft of production, though, this song hits hard. Earle followed it up with a cover of Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “I Been Burning Bad Gasoline” (“Townes always used to say, every set should have blues, so here it is”) and finished out the solo set with a new song that seemed to address his recent stint in rehab with the less-than optimistic but self-aware refrain “It won’t be the last time.” Emotional devastation all around. It clicked for me sometime during those three songs: Justin Townes Earl’s talent as a songwriter is undeniable, but his charm is in his honesty (see the intro to “Slipin’ and Slidin’ above). Throw in a lovely Springsteen cover (“Racing in the Streets“) and it was hard to not want to stick around for the line-dancing after the show.

To sum up, I drove an hour to Bloomington and found myself in a honky-tonk listening to one of the best country music artists in the country. I’m thinking of transferring to ISU.

Buy: Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues

Muzzle of Bees: Let’s just talk about the record a little bit, Harlem River Blues. You’ve consistently put out records, this is basically the 3rd year in a row that you’ve put out a release. As far as what you’ve learned with recording this record, is there anything that you did differently from previous times and anything that you’ve learned that you will apply towards future work?

Justin Townes Earle: Yeah, we used the same methods that we’ve done the last few records and we’ve kind of gathered the best musicians for the job and let them work their magic. But I think the one thing I learned is that on the last few records I’ve made, they went really well, but there were kind of too many cooks in the kitchen. And, so, we had to kind of cut back on, (laugh) I cut back on people in the control room this time around and it made everything move very easily, very rapidly. And not as many people climbing all over each other and not as many people with fucking ideas.

Muzzle of Bees: That’s a good though, right? It allows you to guide that ship a little bit better.

Justin Townes Earle: Yeah, I think so. I think it cuts down on the chaos, when you are producing a record, I think it is important that you make sure that the artist has the loudest voice in the room. And, in this case I was the artist and the producer. I use the same musicians all the time, because they know what I’m talking about. They’ve proven it over and over again. I don’t have any intention of changing the core of my studio band for any reason. I think it just doesn’t make any sense.

Muzzle of Bees: I did want to talk to you about your Letterman performance, which was one of those performances that I stayed up to watch on TV and found it again on YouTube the next day. It was really, really special. I’ve seen you live a bunch of times and I got that same feeling sitting in my living room, which I rarely do sitting in front of my computer watching one of those shows. I thought it came off really well. Not only was it you, but I think Paul Schaffer added a lot to it and I was curious how something like that comes about – was it just you asking if he was interested, or does he assert himself and express interest in playing on your song? How does a collaboration like that come together?

Justin Townes Earle: Well, we actually asked, and it was kind of right up to the wire. We didn’t know if we were going to have him or not until the morning of, when we were checking in, we actually found out. I guess if he’s there and he digs it, he likes jumping on with people. He digs it when people ask him to play. That’s one thing about Paul, he loves to fucking play more than almost anybody I’ve ever met.

Muzzle of Bees: That’s definitely true. I don’t know if you’ve had the opportunity to read his book that he released, I believe last year, but, the trajectory of his career and how he got started and the people that he played with way back in the beginning and up through now created a great story and a great read. So if you need any books out there on the road, that’s one that I could definitely recommend.

Justin Townes Earle: Yeah, I imagine that would be a great book.

Muzzle of Bees: I wanted to talk a little bit about Twitter. You are one of the more active musicians that I follow and wanted to ask you about the tweet you did about starting your own clothing line and how serious you are about that. One of the things that is obvious, not only with your shows, but you definitely have a sense for fashion. How serious are you about going into that realm?

Justin Townes Earle: I’m very serious about it. I’ve always got a thing for clothing and I’m also very particular about it. I’m also kind of an odd shape – I’m really tall and I’m pretty damn thin and so it’s hard for me to find clothes exactly how I like them. And, materials that I like. So I think it’s something that I think if I can find some backing for it, if gangster rappers can do it, why can’t I?

Muzzle of Bees: Are there any individuals you look at style-wise and say that’s somebody that really has like the same understanding of it, or that you look up to as far as that realm?

Justin Townes Earle: Well, I think Billy Reid. I have a lot of friends in fashion. Billy Reed and I have some friends, Martin Carey, who owns a store in Nashville called Imogene + Willie. They make salvaged denim and that would be what I’m shooting for in what would be good. Salvaged denim jeans, and good fit chinos and adult clothing.

Muzzle of Bees: That sounds great. If it gets off the ground, you can count on me, and you can count on the other Ryan, who’s listening to this, to be some of your customers.

Justin Townes Earle: Alright.

Muzzle of Bees: We do this feature on our web-site called Sad Songs and Waltzes where artists share their favorite sad songs that resonate with them. I’ve gotten some from you, in songs that have been special to me that you’ve written. Are there any songs that have kind of a sad lean to them that stand out for you that other artists have done?

Justin Townes Earle: Yeah well, speaking of, the late Charlie Louvin “When I Stop Dreaming.” The Louvin Brothers, that track blows my mind.

Muzzle of Bees: Did you ever get a chance to meet Charlie?

Justin Townes Earle: Yeah, I did several shows with him. He was a fucking character.

Muzzle of Bees: I can remember listening to his Daytrotter session; that was a fantastic capture of him late in his career. He was always as vital late in his career as he was way back in the beginning. So I think history will serve him well and I hope that new generations come to love his music as much as I have and obviously you have as well.

Justin Townes Earle: Yeah, I think people will. I think that Charlie was a very interesting man. I’m sure a book about Charlie Louvin would be probably a pretty fucking entertaining read.

Muzzle of Bees: I imagine so.

Justin Townes Earle: Especially with stories about Ira early on. Ira was supposed to be something else too.

Muzzle of Bees: Let’s talk about the upcoming tour. What’s the line-up going to be like? Are you going out with similar musicians that we’ve seen you with in the past or what can we expect?

Justin Townes Earle: It’s going to be Bryn Davies on bass and Josh Hedley on fiddle and we are going to out this summer with that line-up and then I’m looking at probably adding a drummer at some point, in the fairly new future.

Muzzle of Bees: I also noticed that you are going to in New Zealand. That’s got to be exciting.

Justin Townes Earle: Yeah, I’ve spent a little time there. This is going to be the long trip. I’ve usually only been there for a couple days and just done Wellington and Auckland and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve spent a lot of time in Australia, but a lot of people don’t realize New Zealand is not that close to Australia and it’s a completely different world, especially the South Island. The South Island is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

Muzzle of Bees: What are some of the major differences that you’ve seen between the two?

Justin Townes Earle: New Zealanders are, I don’t know, they are kind of… There’s such a, I can’t even remember what the population of the island is, there’s only something like 3 million people split between the two islands, mainly on the North Island and so, it’s a very isolated people. Not a lot of outside influence is getting in there. In the big, big cities of course. Wellington is one of my favorite cities in the world. It’s kind of got the music scene. In New Zealand all the cool bands will congregate in Wellington, but it’s a really great little city, that’s beautiful and pretty girls and all the recipes to write songs yeah.

Muzzle of Bees: Do you write on the road in places like that or is it something you usually come back home after you’ve been away for a long time and then start to put those things down?

Justin Townes Earle: No, I mean, I write on the road. I think that I write pretty consistently. I don’t have blocks of writing time. I do tend to be more productive during the cold months but I do write all year round, fairly constantly.

Muzzle of Bees: Speaking of writing, each one of your records to me has kind of two different style of songs and one of the styles is what I would say harkens back to all the music that came before you and influenced you. Is that something that you consciously do to sort of keep older country and older bluegrass sounds alive?

Justin Townes Earle: Well, yeah, I think there’s that and then the fact is I take tried and tested forms and just push them a little bit. I think it’s very important that you make it very obvious where you are coming from in the first place. You know, where the idea came from. I’m not trying to do anything new, I’m just working in said existing formats and bucking the boundaries but not at all trying to reshape them.

Muzzle of Bees: The secondary question to that, your stage performance is very different from most modern musicians who kind of just get up and play songs. You kind of feel like they are self-important a little bit. You are really out there carnival barker style with intros and that sort of thing. Was there somebody in particular that influenced that in you?

Justin Townes Earle: I think it was growing up in Nashville around the Grand Ole Opry and obviously shit like “Hee Haw.” There’s a reason that people like Porter Wagoner and Conway Twitty. These were the highest selling musicians in the world during their day. Roger Miller had number one hits when the Beatles were on the charts. One of the very very few people who can claim a number one hit during the reign of the Beatles. So, I just kind of took the cue from that, make everybody realize that, well, give them something to talk about. Otherwise, I’m just a songwriter. There are plenty of people that can write songs as good as I can but the one thing that I hold over a lot of songwriters is that I can burn you up in a solo acoustic performance. I’m very proud of that fact. I want it fucking bullet proof. That’s how you stick in the memory, that’s how you stick in people’s memory, you gotta grab their attention, then they’ll listen to fucking songs.

Muzzle of Bees: That reminds me of the first time I saw you in, I think it was 2008, on The Good Life and my wife, then girlfriend and I sat there amazed because it stood out so much from the concerts, and I go to a lot of shows, so refreshing to see someone who had that kind of care and it wasn’t just going up there and going through the motions. It was drawing people in, and giving them that sense of this is something different. I sometimes feel that is kind of fleeting these days, unfortunately.

Justin Townes Earle: Yeah, well, especially being a personal songwriter. I’m kind of giving people something to have stock or take stock in and that’s what good musicians are about to me, I mean good song writers make you believe in this music. It’s like Springsteen. Write about the shit you know, the situations in life and hope that people feel the same.

Muzzle of Bees: We’ve talked a lot about going to see shows and going to see you, but what was the last show you went to see as a fan?

Justin Townes Earle: Oh, fuck. Um… Um… I think the last thing I saw as a fan was Crowded House.

Muzzle of Bees: Did you see them on their last tour?

Justin Townes Earle: I saw them in Australia actually.

Muzzle of Bees: Oh wow.

Justin Townes Earle: I saw them at the Byron Bay Blues Fest, me and Jason Isbell and we actually the same night saw Taj Mahal.

Muzzle of Bees: Had you seen Taj Mahal before?

Justin Townes Earle: I’ve never seen Taj and he was on one of the big stages late at night and that was when I was still drinking and me and Jason Isbell had a bunch of pretty girls and lot of whiskey.

Muzzle of Bees: (Laugh) Well, Taj Mahal music lends well to that scenario I can imagine.

Justin Townes Earle: Oh yeah, it was pretty amazing. I mean, that whole festival that Byron Bay Festival is really well put together and a lot of people could take some tips from it.

Muzzle of Bees: Does the world stop when you and Jason Isbell are in the same room at the same time?

Justin Townes Earle: Yeah. It can get pretty dangerous with me and Isbell when we get going. It’s better when I don’t drink, but man, if we’re both drinking then, boy, we can do some damage. He’d never been to Australia before and I’ve been doing pretty good over there so I asked him as my opening act. I asked for Jason and it was just me and him and my tour manager in a van, blowing across Australia and it was fun as well. All kinds of mischief.

Justin Townes Earle begins his tour this week, and will make stops next week in Chicago and Madison. We highly recommend you see him live and, if you haven’t already picked up a copy of Harlem River Blues, please do so, it’s one of our favorite records from 2010.

Buy: Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues
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MP3: Justin Townes Earle – “Harlem River Blues”

I stayed up last night to catch Justin Townes Earle on Letterman last night and it paid off in spades. Performing the title track from his fantastic 2010 release, Harlem River Blues, and with Jason Isbell on guitar, it was a performance that brought a smile to my face. Justin is out on the road for several dates next month, including stops in Chicago and Madison. Don’t miss him.

MP3: Justin Townes Earle – “Harlem River Blues”
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Buy: Justin Towes Earle – Harlem River Blues

Elsewhere:

One of the things keeping me up last night was the opportunity to hear Iron And Wine perform Kiss Each Other Clean live courtesy of NPR. Everything I’ve heard from this record has me so excited for this release. You can really hear Sam Beam stretching out and putting all his cards on the table. I love it. Listen to the entire record via this live recording.

Twin Shadow’s Daytrotter session that went up yesterday is one of the best I’ve heard in a long time, specifically the track, “Slow.” You can find that track and bunch more great stuff on his record, Forget. Even more great news is that Twin Shadow is supporting The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, including a stop here in Milwaukee at Turner Hall Ballroom on Tuesday, April 26th.

Akron/Family have released an official video of “So It Goes,” which appears on their forthcoming Dead Oceans release, S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT. Pre-order your copy here.
MP3: Akron/Family – “So It Goes”

Remember Matt Baur? His album, The Island Moved In The Storm, was one of my favorite records of 2008. We’ve been introduced to the video for “Don’t Let Me Out” for the first time. It’s worth the watch.

The Strand of Oaks Kickstarter campaign has only one week left to go. Make your pledge today and help get Pope Killdragon pressed on vinyl.

If you’re in Madison on Friday night allow us to recommend the Conrad Plymouth, Snowbirds and Derek Pritzl show at the Frequency. Tickets are only $6 and you’ll be able to purchase the Conrad Plymouth self-titled vinyl we put out on our Ten Atoms label last year.

We’re super excited for our two 6th Anniversary showcases going down next weekend in Milwaukee. On Friday night, join us at Cactus Club for Sat. Nite Duets, Golden Coins and Blessed Feathers. Three of our favorite new bands in the city right now. Tickets are only $8, you can RSVP here. On Saturday night we’re supremely excited to welcome S. Carey and Conrad Plymouth to Club Garibaldi. Tickets for that show are $10 and moving fast, so please get yours today. On top of all that excitement, we’ll have free nachos. Bam!

By Jon Stone | @jwstone

On September 20th, just three days after the release of Justin Townes Earle’s Harlem River Blues, the artist was arrested in Indianapolis after a performance for battery, public drunkenness, and resisting arrest. The arrest led to the cancelation of his fall tour, and Earle, who has had long history with addiction (much longer than his mere three years as a solo artist), checked into rehab. (You can read about the incident over at Old Kentucky Blog, which includes a long thread of comments from eye-witnesses on both sides of the conflict — also check out Earle’s response.)

These kinds of events are unfortunate on many levels, not the least of which is great concern for JTE’s tenuous health/drugs situation.  That Harlem River Blues is brilliant and deserved the kinds of publicity that JTE could have garnered for it by touring directly after its release is another casualty of that public meltdown. I am hard pressed to think of any album or artist that moves so effortlessly between genres. The record starts with the title track, a rousing 50s-era country number, and from there branches out deftly in a variety of threads: from rockabilly to jazzy delta blues, and from Drake-esque folk to straight-out gospel. And with that kind of range — talent that may or may not be inextricably  conflated with his habits — surely, JTE should be added to the short list of troubled musical geniuses.

As a student of the history of country music, Earle is a perfect model of modern distillation. It’s as if he has been able to wrangle 70 years of tradition and produce something fresh and new from that diversity — something that his father, the acclaimed Steve Earle, has attempted over his long career — but perhaps less successfully, as “alt-country” still seems the best designation for Steve even while Justin remains unclassifiable.

Harlem River Blues is one of my favorite records of the year, and it’s going to have to tide me over for now. Though JTE’s tour will resume at the end of the month, he steers clear of the midwest (no surprise there) and then will be moving things to the UK. Still, make sure you add it to your list of 2010 records to spend some quality time with.

MP3: Justin Townes Earle – “Harlem River Blues”
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Buy: Justin Towes Earle – Harlem River Blues

OK, so this sounds amazing. Old Crow Medicine Show, David Rawlings Machine (with Gillian Welch), The Felice Brothers, and Justin Townes Earle have all joined forces for The Big Surprise Tour. This is an event worth traveling for as far as I’m concerned.

Here’s the skinny: “Shows will be composed of two 90-minute sets broken up by an intermission. In a free form ramshackle flow the bands and artists will share the stage, taking part in each other’s songs, resurrecting old standards, and playing newly written collaborative material as they go. Each evening is sure to be a unique experience as they all put their many combined years of musicianship and knowledge of song-craft and American music into play for these sessions.”

I think a road trip may be in order…

August Tour Dates:

04 – Hampton Beach, NH @ Casino Ballroom
05 – Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
06 – New York, NY @ Beacon Theatre
07 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
09 – Charlottesville, VA @ Charlottesville Pavilion
10 – Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre
12 – Louisville, KY @ Waterfront Park
13 – Nashville, TN @ Riverfront Park
14 – Knoxville, TN @ World’s Fair Park

Buy: Old Crow Medicince Show

Myspace: Old Crow Medicine Show
MP3: Old Crow Medicine Show – “Caroline”