', Meghan Markle was once told ‘never’ to drag Kate Middleton ‘into idle gossip,’ royal author claims, Hilaria Baldwin says 'this cow is tired' from breastfeeding two babies, Meghan Markle's touching letter to UK school on International Women's Day revealed. He was also wary of being roped into anyone else’s memorial. (“Tell my mama I love her, tell my father I tried,” it goes. You lose things. “J.T.” — Justin’s childhood nickname — is the latest entry in what has become a grim specialty for Earle: the tribute album for a departed musical confidant. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. All rights reserved. Are they here because they like my music, or are they here because they like my dad’s music?”. In 2007, Justin’s debut EP, “Yuma,” introduced him as a stylish traditionalist with a hint of punk-rock attitude. Following his death in August, many tributes poured in remembering late singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle.His father, Steve Earle, shared a poignant tweet of the two when his son was a … He was 38. When Steve Earle unleashed his new album JT, a covers record of songs by his late son Justin Townes Earle, earlier this month, the rollout looked in some ways to be similar to that of any other big release by the legendary singer-songwriter: late-night TV performances, an interview with The New York Times, and, of course, plenty of album reviews. Earle’s craggy-voiced performance underscores dark themes that were there all along. The night before the first session for “J.T.,” Earle gathered the band at his apartment for a sushi meal. Said the statement from New West Records, “Steve Earle & the Dukes announced today that they will be recording an album of songs written by Justin Townes Earle … “It always made me incredibly jealous that Justin had a John Henry song and I didn’t,” he said. “His best songs were as good as anybody’s,” said Earle, whose Greenwich Village apartment is crammed with photos of Justin, including one black-and-white shot on the wall showing his 3-year-old son chomping on a candy apple. Within days of Justin Townes Earle’s death, Steve Earle (65) began work on what would become J.T., an album of 10 of his son’s songs, and one new track by Earle… Last month, Steve Earle released his take on “Harlem River Blues,” the first taste of J.T., his upcoming tribute album to his son Justin Townes Earle, who died in August. I was completely clean for six years. But while Steve eventually got clean — after spending time in prison in 1994 on drug and weapons charges — his son succumbed to the disease. He did not record anything from his son’s albums “Absent Fathers” or “Single Mothers.” He also avoided one of Justin’s best-known songs, “Mama’s Eyes,” which begins: “I am my father’s son/I’ve never known when to shut up.”, Those songs, Earle said, simply didn’t hold up as well as others he chose, which showcase Justin’s economical storytelling voice. He had just played a sold-out gig at the State Room in downtown Salt Lake City. They separated when Justin was … will be released on January 4th, 2021 digitally, which would have been Justin’s 39th birthday. ', Steve's tribute album to his son, Justin. Earle said that in writing “John Henry Was a Steel Drivin’ Man,” from his most recent album, “Ghosts of West Virginia” (2020), he “deliberately emulated” Justin’s guitar part on his song “They Killed John Henry.”. (They began sessions before Oct. "It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin," the announcement read. Justin Townes Earle, Singer-Songwriter Dies at 38 Steve Earle on Using Ghosts as a Writing Tool As the son of a country legend, Justin was practically born to play music. On the evening of Aug. 20, Steve Earle spoke to his son Justin Townes Earle for the last time. Legal Statement. or redistributed. “But the truth is, it was kind of business as usual in a lot of ways.”. "I got all my craziness out of the way as a coffeehouse musician and a roadie," he revealed. ©2021 FOX News Network, LLC. Ray Kennedy, Earle’s longtime engineer, recalls the time in Electric Lady as being celebratory but focused. “It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin,” the family wrote, adding a picture of the musician playing his guitar. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Stagecoach), Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines for August 23, Meghan Markle, Prince Harry will have an 'awkward' talk with Queen Elizabeth after angering the palace: source, Pee-wee Herman documentary in the works at HBO, Country star Larry Gatlin tests positive for coronavirus after receiving Moderna vaccine: 'What are the odds? By Justin’s teenage years — once Earle was clean and out of prison — he was living with his father, and they developed a close musical bond. They began each day at 10 a.m. and finished by 4 p.m., so that Earle could take care of his youngest son, John Henry, 10, who has autism. At this point in his career, Earle — bespectacled, with a long salt-and-pepper beard — is a Renaissance man for whom mortality and addiction have been perennial subject matter. Alcoholism plagued him throughout his career, and took a hard toll in his later years. According to Steve, 100% of the artist advances and royalties from J.T. ©2021 FOX News Network, LLC. Steve Earle has announced details for his album of songs dedicated to his late son, the singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle, who died this past August at the age of 38.. Steve Earle & The Dukes appeared on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' to perform songs from 'J.T. After his debut, EP Yuma (2007), he released eight full-length albums. Earle, slouching on his sofa with a green bandanna as a face mask, seemed almost bemused by the question of whether recording his dead son’s songs was difficult to get through. SALT LAKE CITY — Justin Townes Earle stood outside the venue, smoking a cigarette. When I use drugs, I don't do anything else. "It's kind of one of those things you just grow to expect when you have that lifestyle. 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". You go to jail. His mother, Carol-Ann Hunter, was Steve Earle’s third wife. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. a group for fans and the promotion of the music of the Earles, principally a sight that unites and promotes the work of the legendary Steve Earle and his brilliant son Justin Townes Earle. ... Justin was born into a world of music, then hardship (fostered mostly by him). Other songs reveal an interplay between the two men and their music. “I said, ‘Do not make me bury you,’” the elder Earle recalled in an interview. Father and son sharing the stage in 2011. Justin Townes Earle was born in Nashville on Jan. 4, 1982. Within a few years, he was building a reputation in New York, appearing frequently (as performer or patron) at a bar near his East Village apartment. His father is country rock artist Steve Earle. Earle, who had largely avoided speaking publicly about Justin’s death, wanted the album to be his statement. It also had the unmistakable imprint of Earle himself, whose best songs, whether performed in loud bands or alone with an acoustic guitar, have always had a certain rock ’n’ roll sneer. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. “Townes” was released in 2009, a dozen years after Van Zandt died; “Guy,” a homage to the songwriter Guy Clark, came out three years after Clark’s death in 2016. You just kind of get used to it. Justin Townes Earle was born January 4, 1982, to Steve Earle and Carol Anne Hunter. Market data provided by Factset. Justin’s “Lone Pine Hill,” a Civil War ballad with a Townes Van Zandt-style guitar part, Earle sees as indebted to his “Ben McCulloch,” about a disillusioned Confederate soldier. For Earle, the death of his eldest son set off waves of grief. Less than two months after Justin Townes Earle’s death from an accidental overdose, his father entered Electric Lady Studios to record an LP’s worth of his songs. “It felt like we were taking an expression of somebody’s art and creativity and giving it back to the world in a different package.”. Earle introduced his son to his record collection after Justin was impressed by Nirvana covering a Leadbelly song on “MTV Unplugged.”. “Harlem River Blues” contemplates a drowning death. “And he said, ‘I won’t.’”. “Next thing I knew,” Earle said, “he was playing Mance songs that I had never been able to figure out.”. “I made the record because I needed to.”. American singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle died over the weekend, his family confirmed in a statement on Sunday. Earle … ", QUIET RIOT DRUMMER FRANKIE BANALI DEAD AT 68, Singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle performs on the Mustang Stage during day 1 of 2017 Stagecoach California's Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 28, 2017, in Indio, California. He developed an irresistible persona for the media, dressing in retro suits and hats, blithely recounting his struggle with drugs while reveling in the notoriety it brought. Justin Townes Earle, the son of singer Steve Earle, has died. “So there’s this bit of distrust with the audience from the very beginning. He went on to release several albums, including 2019’s “The Saint of Los Causes.”, In 2010, Charleston City Paper reported that Earle began using drugs at 13 and had survived five heroin overdoses by the age of 21. “I was prepared for it to be horrific. “J.T.” is, in a sense, a double portrait of father and son. … The post Steve Earle & The Dukes Announce Covers Album of Justin Townes Earle Songs appeared first on Consequence of Sound.. Last month, beloved singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle … Lately he has been writing a science-fiction story intended for television. “I’ve never loved anything in this world more than him,” Earle said. However, the outlet noted Earle sought help “after a 14-day coke and dope binge that ended in respiratory failure.”, "At the time, I'd been a junkie for a good portion of my life," Earle told the outlet at the time. Earle’s cause of death was not made known in the statement. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Earle also got candid about facing his personal battles and writing while in rehab. But the truth is, it was kind of business as usual in a lot of ways.”, Justin’s catalog, with its frequent themes of the entanglements and disappointments of family, might seem a minefield for Earle. Justin was hospitalized with pneumonia over the summer, having aspirated vomit in his lungs, and was told by a doctor that he would die if he did not quit drinking, Steve said. The song that was the most painful to record is also the album’s most powerful: “Last Words,” a heartbreaking synopsis of a father’s journey, from holding his newborn son to speaking to him for the last time. “I made the record because I needed to.”. For two of Justin’s earliest tunes, “Maria” and “Ain’t Glad I’m Leaving,” Kennedy dug out tapes of Justin’s original arrangements with the Swindlers, which he and Earle recorded in 2001, when Justin was 19. Justin was born in 1982, while Earle was a journeyman songwriter in Nashville. He had watched Justin grow from a scraggly teenage hip-hop fan intrigued by Kurt Cobain to a rising star of Americana music — the fuzzy intersection in the Venn diagram of folk, country and rock, where Earle has long been a looming presence. “You will be missed dearly Justin.”, The statement concluded with a lyric from Earle's 2014 song "Looking for a Place to Land" from his “Absent Fathers” record: "I've crossed oceans/ Fought freezing rain and blowing sand/ I've crossed lines and roads and wondering rivers/Just looking for a place to land.”, MILEY CYRUS MOURNS THE DEATH OF HER GRANDMOTHER: 'YOU WILL FOREVER BE MY INSPIRATION', LARRY KING SPEAKS OUT AFTER LOSING TWO CHILDREN WITHIN WEEKS. “I did not want to be asked to be on a tribute record with several people that I thought absolutely were enablers and helped kill him,” Earle said, his words flecked with expletives. R.I.P. About a month after Justin Townes Earle tragically died at the age of 38, his father Steve announced he’d be recording a covers album. “I inoculated myself to some degree,” he said. Proceeds from the LP will go to a trust to benefit Etta. Steve Earle and The Dukes took over Jimmy Kimmel Live!on Thursday to perform songs from their latest album J.T., which honors Steve's late son Justin Townes Earle.. Stream Steve Earle’s Album Of Songs By His Late Son Justin Townes Earle New Music January 4, 2021 9:27 AM By Chris DeVille In August, Steve Earle … The star is survived by his wife Jenn Marie and their 3-year-old daughter Etta St. James. That night, Justin, 38, died alone in an apartment in Nashville of an accidental drug overdose; an autopsy found evidence in his blood of cocaine laced with fentanyl, a powerful opioid. Market data provided by Factset. Within days of Justin’s death, Earle, 65, began work on what would become “J.T.,” an album of 10 of Justin’s songs, and one new track by his father, that will be released on Jan. 4, which would have been Justin’s 39th birthday. "So many of you have relied on his music and lyrics over the years and we hope that his music will continue to guide you on your journeys,” the family continued. When I'm drinking and using drugs, I think that all my actions are perfectly normal and okay, and somehow I wake up in jail. Steve Earle and Justin Townes Earle on April 18, 2017 in New York City. “Give my money to my baby to spend.”) “Turn Out My Lights,” about the phantom-limb ache for a former lover, takes on an eerie double meaning when Earle sings: Even though I know you’re goneI don’t have to be alone nowYou’re here with me every nightWhen I turn out my lights, Recording the album “wasn’t cathartic as much as it was therapeutic,” Earle said. You get fired. People also reported Earle spoke out in 2017 on Chris Shiflett's "Walking the Floor" podcast about what it was like creating music while sober. Recorded with the Dukes, Earle’s longtime backing band — including Chris Masterson on guitar, Eleanor Whitmore on fiddle, Ricky Ray Jackson on pedal steel guitar, Jeff Hill on bass and Brad Pemberton on drums — “J.T.” includes some of Justin’s best-known songs, like “Harlem River Blues,” “Champagne Corolla” and “The Saint of Lost Causes,” the title track of Justin’s final album, released in 2019. All rights reserved. But “J.T.” was made while Earle’s pain was still raw. CD and vinyl copies to be made available on March 19th, 2021 via New West Records. Shooter Jennings, the country-rock singer — and son of the outlaw country legend Waylon Jennings — recalled Justin during this period as an almost intimidating talent, albeit one who still lived under the shadow of a famous father. Once Steve got clean in 1994, the boy lived with him. “I was prepared for it to be horrific,” Earle said of the recording process. The singer-songwriter’s family confirmed the news in a statement posted on Instagram and Facebook Sunday. Justin, who released eight albums and an EP over 13 years, had a mordant songwriting style that bore the influence of Townes Van Zandt, the fatalistic folk oracle who was Earle’s mentor and the man he named his son after. “Your last words to me were ‘I love you too.’”, The Album Steve Earle Never Wanted to Make: A Tribute to His Son, Recording the album “wasn’t cathartic as much as it was therapeutic,” Steve Earle said. Justin played in two bands, the Swindlers and the Distributors, before going solo in his 20s. His fingerpicking could be mind-blowing.”, “He was just one of those people,” Earle added, “that never felt like he was enough.”. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. TO RECORD “J.T.,” Earle, with the help of his son Ian, 33, winnowed Justin’s work to a list of 10 songs — two of them, “Turn Out My Lights” and “Far Away in Another Town,” Justin wrote with Scotty Melton — and booked a week at Electric Lady Studios in New York. Earle pointed his son to the L section of his record collection, where Leadbelly abutted the bluesmen Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb. For much of Justin’s youth, Earle was touring or lost in the depths of drug addiction. “J.T.” opens with “I Don’t Care,” a jaunty, fingerpicked ditty from “Yuma.” The Dukes play it as a rollicking hootenanny, with Earle growling its sardonic twist on a folk cliché: “I don’t know where I’m going no more/I don’t know, and I don’t care.”. During recording sessions in October, the official cause of Justin’s death had still not been determined. He worked fast, sending his band preparatory notes by text message. He released his first EP, titled “Yuma,” in 2007. “I definitely write better when I'm not using drugs or drinking," he explained. I am a drug addict.”. "When I'm using, it's hard to keep me out of a bar or hard to get me off the dope spot. Steve Earle and his band the Dukes appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! 20.) Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Justin Townes Earle (January 4, 1982 – August 20, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. The choices also contrast the two men’s styles. Steve eventually wasn’t around much, leaving Justin with his mother from age two. Earle was born in Nashville and played in local bands the Distributors and the Swindlers. Earle wrote it less than a week after Justin died, and he described it as “maybe the only song I’ve ever written in my life that every single word in it is true.”, “Last thing I said was ‘I love you,’” Earle sings, over acoustic guitar and ominous, droning feedback. “There’s really no such thing as bad press,” he told The Wall Street Journal in 2010. By the time they began recording, Justin had been dead for less than two months. Justin Townes Earle's cause of death revealed as accidental overdose Bang Showbiz 12/2/2020 US Coronavirus: Country is at tipping point of another Covid-19 surge, expert says. In addition to his many albums, Earle has written a play about a woman on death row and a novel about the specter of Hank Williams, and contributed music to a recent play about a mining disaster in West Virginia. Steve Earle’s tribute album to his late son Justin Townes Earle called J.T. He later claimed to Rolling Stone he first shot heroin at age 12. “He was a way better singer than I am, a way better guitar player, technically, than I am. Chris Mautz, one of the venue’s owners, still remembers how the muted street lights …