Then again, sometimes you hesitate to declare an experience 'the best' until the adrenaline rush eases and a perspective is reached. None needed here. Justin Townes Earle at the Iron Horse Music Hall last night- best show of the year so far!Son of the legendary Steve Earle, JTE has been on my radar for awhile. G-Man saw him open for Dan Auerbach and raved about him. I bought Harlem River Blues and loved it. Various YouTube clips whetted my appetite for seeing him live. Articles about him noted he has struggled with many of the same demons as his famous father. Hold on, I know what you're going to say, that I have an affinity for talented, tortured singers, who eventually let me down by destroying themselves. I'm hoping not.
None of our friends want anything to do with this venture, so The Reet and I deftly pick our way through the Hartford rush hour traffic I91 north to Northampton, arriving about six for the 7 o'clock show. We are seated upstairs at a table for four along the front rail, paired up with a Northampton area couple who originally hailed from CT. They attend shows at the Iron Horse often, but came tonight without knowing much about JTE; heard very good things about him, knew of his pedigree and thought they'd check him out.
Shovels & Rope open. I know- WTF is that? It's Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent, a young South Carolina married couple, each of whom is a literal one-man band (well, Cary Ann isn't a man, but you know what I mean), sometimes playing drums, harmonica, tambourine, cymbals and singing, while the OTHER played guitar! Quirky, but with substance. Very entertaining, playing for about forty-five minutes. Intermission.
I accompany The Reet down two flights to the basement bathrooms (hey, Justin- passing us on his way up from the basement dressing rooms), where I leave her in the LONG line to the two unisex bathrooms and go back up to wait by the bar in the back of the main level (hey, Justin- passing me as he goes back down to the dressing room). Justin is going for the hip-geek look tonight, dressed in jeans, loafers, no socks, very tight plaid jacket with blue button-down shirt and skinny tie. I'm taken by how skinny he is!
Finally, around eight, JTE comes on stage with an acoustic guitar, flanked by two gals, a cute redhead on fiddle and a sassy looking brunette on standup bass. Earle greets us with some self-deprecating humor that just heightens that underlying feeling of angst for him, then gets to it. My fears of just good vanish. He's great. He can play and sing anything. Blues. Folk. Swing. Gospel. The fiddler is wonderful and you've GOT to love a chick who can slap around a standup bass! He introduces One More Night in Brooklyn, telling of living in a shithole section of the borough some years ago. Some of his songs are painfully beautiful to hear. He acknowledges his demons ("I apologize for missing the radio interview today, but I'm a bit fragile when not consuming vast amounts of alcohol. I promise to make up for it."), but is pretty upbeat, all things considered (Well, THAT was depressing, let's try this!"). A call out from the crowd for Wanderin'; he smiles, but does something else, then comes back to the request a few songs later, laughing. Great guitar picker! The harmonies are wonderful. A couple times, he sends his bandmates off stage for a rest while he does some solo. A new album is to be recorded in October, he says, before giving us one of his new songs. Near the end, he brings out Shovels & Rope for the chorus to Harlem River Blues. Great! (I've envisioned a very large gospel choir singing grandly, "Lord, I'm going uptown, to the Harlem River to drown, muddy water gonna cover me over, and I'm not gonna make a sound." Think about it.) A two-song encore, Midnight at the Movies is especially good. Prolonged ovation. Perfect night, JTE!
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| He went for the hip-geek look tonight |
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| Pre-show view from our balcony seats |
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