An unexpected forerunner in a genre
in peril
Moments before I first saw Justin
Townes Earle, my buddy tells me this guy is "the future of punk
rock." Naturally, only first hearing of the man that night, I
was reluctant. That is, until Earle and right-hand man Cory Younts
took to the old theater stage, playing stripped-down, bluesy
country-folk songs—songs, and that's it. No fancy production, no
"oohs and ahhs," no distractions. Just a refreshingly
minimalist collection of two- to three-minute tunes that at times
sounded some 60 years old, but never once felt stale.
Many of those tracks found their way
onto Earle's sophomore record and third overall release, Midnight at
the Movies, his best and most thorough work. It's as if he extracted
the emotional transparency and simplicity from his self-released EP,
Yuma, and mixed that with the hints of rockabilly and studio finesse
of his debut album, The Good Life. The result is a nearly flawless,
organic LP. And he makes it all sound so easy on tracks like "They
Killed John Henry" and "Halfway to Jackson," which
mainly revolve around some hurried acoustic finger plucking, with a
couple of other non-invasive instruments like a harmonica or standup
bass to round it all out. Even Earle’s unexpected take on the
Replacements’ “Can’t Hardly Wait” sounds as if Paul
Westerberg had written it for this very album.
But back to the original debate: Is
Justin Townes Earle and Midnight at the Movies actually “punk
rock?” Twelve tracks, 32 mins., everyman lyricism and a too-cool
attitude? You tell me.