![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/280_jteyc8.jpg\" "\\"280_jteyc8\\"")
A pedigree can be hard to live with.<\/p>\nA pedigree can be hard to live with.<\/p>\n
When your father is a music icon, avoiding the comparison often becomes an arduous task. People often bring a preconceived notion to your music before they hear one note.<\/p>\n
Justin Townes Earle avoids those pitfalls by focusing on the song rather than his bloodline. The influence of his father \u2013 country music legend Steve Earle \u2013 cannot be denied, but the younger Earle knows the difference between influence and imitation. His heartfelt songs sound timeless not because they tread on familiar ground, but because good songs cause a certain kind of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n
Earle\u2019s newest album, \u201cMidnight at the Movies,\u201d brings to mind the sound of an old AM radio. Earle\u2019s nicotine and bourbon-tinged vocals glide over painfully simple chord progressions with a wistful and earnest attitude.<\/p>\n
The title track kicks the album off with a mellow sway. \u201cWhat I Mean to You\u201d would fit perfectly in some roadside, late night honky tonk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey Killed John Henry\u201d jumps with an old-time folk gallop. \u201cMama\u2019s Eyes\u201d serves as the album\u2019s emotional centerpiece and leads nicely into the 30-second instrumental \u201cDirty Rag.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t Hardly Wait\u201d sees Earle covering the Replacements classic with a Grand Ole Opry twang.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalfway to Jackson\u201d moans like a train song, complete with a chugging harmonica and hopping guitar.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeday I\u2019ll be Forgiven For This,\u201d conveys the feeling of regret for mistakes made \u2013 something Earle knows well. Although the song deals with infidelity, he could just as easily be talking about his struggles with drugs that caused him to be fired from his father\u2019s band.<\/p>\n
While this album lacks the type of crossover appeal that would draw in a larger audience, Earle has definitely crafted a tight, emotional piece of modern country music. Earle has written songs that fit more with the Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash model of country than the over-polished, over-produced Kenny Chesney-type of hillbilly music.<\/p>\n
It is an album that does his bloodline proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A pedigree can be hard to live with. When your father is a music icon, avoiding the comparison often becomes an arduous task. People often bring a preconceived notion to your music before they hear one note. Justin Townes Earle avoids those pitfalls by focusing on the song rather than his bloodline. The influence of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[73,74,1960],"class_list":["post-993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-music","tag-reviews","tag-rusty-pate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-g1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=993"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15355,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/993\/revisions\/15355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}