Justin Townes Earle (January 4, 1982August 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". His father is

alternative country Alternative country, or alternative country rock (sometimes alt-country, insurgent country, Americana, or y'allternative), is a loosely defined subgenre of country music and/or country rock that includes acts that differ significantly in style ...

artist

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...

Early life

Earle grew up in South Nashville,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, with his mother, Carol Ann Hunter Earle. His father,

, gave him his middle name in honor of his own mentor, singer and songwriter

Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

. When Justin was two, his father left his family, but after Steve Earle became sober in 1994 he returned. Justin dropped out of school, occasionally touring with and working for his father, eventually moving to eastern

with other songwriters. Like his father, Earle battled addiction beginning in his early teens.

Career

Earle played in two

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

bands: the rock band the Distributors and the

ragtime Ragtime, also spelled rag-time or rag time, is a musical style that flourished from the 1890s to 1910s. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or "ragged" rhythm. Ragtime was popularized during the early 20th century by composers such as Scott ...

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 Bloodshot Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, which specializes in alternative country. History Bloodshot Records was founded in 1994 by Nan Warshaw, Rob Miller, and Eric Babcock, who knew each other from jobs ...

and released an album called ''The Good Life'' in 2008. In 2009, he released the album '' Midnight at the Movies''. In 2010, he released the album '' Harlem River Blues'', 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 A single parent is a person who has a child or children but does not have a spouse or live-in partner to assist in the upbringing or support of the child. Reasons for becoming a single parent include divorce, break-up, abandonment, becoming wid ...

'' (2014), '' Absent Fathers'' (2015), and ''

Kids in the Street ''Kids in the Street'' is the fourth and most recent studio album by American rock band the All-American Rejects, released March 26, 2012, by Interscope Records. It is their last to be released on Interscope. Composition and recording The All-A ...

'' (2017). His last album, '' The Saint of Lost Causes'', was released in May 2019. Earle produced

Wanda Jackson Wanda LaVonne Jackson (born October 20, 1937) is an American singer and songwriter. Since the 1950s, she has recorded and released music in the genres of rock, country and gospel. She was among the first women to have a career in rock and roll, ...

's album '' Unfinished Business'' in 2012.

Appearances

Earle played the

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...

in 2008, Historical WSM,

South By Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

(2008–2010, 2012), the historic Beacon Theatre (May 2009), Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion (September 2009),

Bonnaroo The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Since its first year in 2002, it has been held at what is now Great Stage Park on a farm in M ...

(2009)

Bumbershoot Bumbershoot is an annual international music and arts festival held in Seattle, Washington. One of North America's largest such festivals, it takes place every Labor Day weekend (leading up to and including the first Monday of September) at the ...

(2010), the

East Coast Blues & Roots Music Festival The Byron Bay Bluesfest, formerly the East Coast International Blues & Roots Music Festival, is an annual Australian music festival that has been held over the Easter long weekend in the Byron Bay, New South Wales, area since 1990. The festiva ...

(

Byron Bay Byron Bay ( Minjungbal: ''Cavvanbah)'' is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia on Bundjalung Country. It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a hea ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia) in 2012, the

Bowery Ballroom The Bowery Ballroom is a New York City live-music venue located at 6 Delancey Street in the neighborhood of Bowery in Manhattan. The Bowery Ballroom holds something of a cult status among musicians as well as audiences. ''Rolling Stone'' magazi ...

(March 2010), the Winnipeg Folk Festival (July 2008), and the

Nelsonville Music Festival The Nelsonville Music Festival is an annual four-day music festival located at the Historic Village of Robbins Crossing at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio. The event in Southeastern Ohio usually takes place in late May or early June and featu ...

(2008 and 2011)."Past Shows." Stuart's Opera House: Nelsonville, Ohio. Stuart's Opera House: Nelsonville, Ohio, n.d. Web. !October 8, 2012."Nelsonville Music Festival." Nelsonville Music Festival, n.d. Web. October 25, 2012. In 2009, Earle co-billed The Big Surprise Tour with

Gillian Welch Gillian Howard Welch (; born October 2, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, bluegrass, countr ...

and

David Rawlings David Todd Rawlings (born December 31, 1969) is an American guitarist, singer, and record producer. He is known for his partnership with singer and songwriter Gillian Welch. He and Welch were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Son ...

Old Crow Medicine Show Old Crow Medicine Show is an Americana string band based in Nashville, Tennessee, that has been recording since 1998. They were inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on September 17, 2013. Their ninth album, '' Remedy'', released in 2014, won the Gr ...

, and

The Felice Brothers The Felice Brothers are an American folk rock/country rock band from New York.Bumgardner, Ed, 8 November 2007'Music Notes: Felice Brothers are earthy, their music visceralRelish Now!''. History The Felice Brothers got their start as a band pl ...

. In 2012, he appeared in an episode of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

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". 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 Viktoriya Vladimirovna Lysyuk (; born 27 September 1995), known professionally as MAYBE BABY (), is a Belarusian pop singer and rap artist based in Russia. Early life Victoria Lysyuk was born in the city of Zhabinka in the Brest Region of Belar ...

" on the 2011 tribute album '' Rave on Buddy Holly'', and played

Newport Folk Festival Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. It was one of the first modern music festivals in America, and remains a foca ...

and the

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (HSB), originally Strictly Bluegrass, is an annual free and non-commercial music festival held the first weekend of October in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California. Conceived and subsidized by San Francisco ve ...

. ''Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now'' was listed at album number 37 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'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."

Personal life

Earle began using 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 Sobriety is the condition of not having any measurable levels or effects from alcohol or drugs. Sobriety is also considered to be the natural state of a human being at birth. A person in a state of sobriety is considered sober. Organizations o ...

. He relapsed in September 2010 when he was involved in a fight with an

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

club owner. He relapsed again in 2017. Earle moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 2009. He returned to Nashville for several years. 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. His death was announced by his family on social media on August 23. The cause of death was not immediately announced, but Nashville police said they were investigating the death as a probable drug overdose. On December 1, 2020, Earle's family announced that he died from an accidental overdose of

fentanyl Fentanyl, also spelled fentanil, is a very potent synthetic opioid used as a pain medication. Together with other drugs, fentanyl is used for anesthesia. It is also used illicitly as a recreational drug, sometimes mixed with heroin, cocaine ...

-laced

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

Discography

Albums

References

Other sources

*Deming, Mark
"Justin Townes Earle Biography"
''CMT'',

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, March 25, 2008. *Ruehl, Kim
"2008 Americana Music Association Awards and Honors Winners"
''About.com'', Folk Music Guide, September 18, 2008. *Jacobs, Justin

''Paste Magazine'', September 21, 2009.

External links

*
Earle
at

Vagrant Records Vagrant Records is an American record label based in California. It was founded in 1995 by Rich Egan and Jon Cohen. The label focuses on rock, but features artists in a variety of other genres including folk, soul, electronic, and pop. It is home ...

Earle
at

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

*
Earle collection
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

's live music archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Earle, Justin Townes 1982 births 2020 deaths 21st-century American singers Accidental deaths in Tennessee American country singer-songwriters American folk musicians Americana Music Honors & Awards winners Bloodshot Records artists Cocaine-related deaths in Tennessee Country musicians from Tennessee Drug-related deaths in Tennessee Earle musical family Loose Music artists New West Records artists Singers from Nashville, Tennessee Vagrant Records artists Singer-songwriters from Tennessee