Jonathan Geddes
There are many things that Justin Townes Earle will do, but a head to head challenge with Lucinda Williams is not one of them.
The Nashville singer is explaining the background to why he's released two separate album over the past several months, with this year's Absent Fathers being preceded by last September's Single Mothers.
Both records take the always frank Earle's song writing to new level of brutal introspection, focusing heavily on his relationship with his father, the Texan singer Steve Earle, and serve as companion pieces to each other.
That's because originally Earle had planned a double album, until fate, and a clash with song writing royalty, intervened.
"It was intended to be a double record but there were several factors that popped up," he reflects, ahead of a Glasgow visit as part of Celtic Connections.
"Number one was that I had trouble with the record label I was supposed to be on (Communion Records), as they tried to f*** me over, so I took it to Vagrant, who did an incredible job in getting a record out fast.
"Then, there was the fact that how many double albums have there been that people gave a f*** about? Not many. And then the third fact was that Lucinda Williams was going to bring out a double record the same day (that he planned to release a new album) and the day I go toe to toe with Lucinda Williams is the day I quit."
In truth, having some difficulties with releasing his records is a minor issue for Earle, given his varied past. He's struggled with drug and drink problems for most of his life (though has been sober since 2011), resulting in stays in rehabilitation centres, losing publishing deals and, most infamous of all, being kicked out of his father's backing band.
His music, though, has always been able to walk a steadier path. A gifted songwriter who dips into all the hallmarks of roots music, from country to rock n' roll and the blues, the 33-year-old's most recent records have seen a steady rise in attention, with his Oran Mor appearance a week on Saturday (January 17) recently upgraded to the O2 ABC due to demand.
When he last spoke to the Herald in 2011, he was in a bright frame of mind, and positively spoke about his relationship with his father, who had left him when he was two years old. However it was reflecting on family relationships that triggered many of the songs for both records.
"When I first started writing Single Mothers I was not in a good place. I'd been in a bad relationship, this was before I'd met my wife, and while my career seemed to have gone far, I realised there was a lot of things that I was still angry about.
"There's nobody on this earth that hasn't hated their parents at one point but how we react to that, that's the difference."
Earle is undoubtedly in a far better place now than he was when he first started work on Single Mothers. He believes he's in a stable position for the first time in his life, a state aided by getting married over a year ago, even though his songwriting inspiration will remain the darker side of life.
"They always say that in marriage the first year is the hardest year so we'll be just fine.
"I didn't get married till I was 32, an unspoken suggestion I took from my father, and I got lucky in that I met a woman who I can't find one thing to get cross about with. Life is lonely, and we lose more than we win, so having someone there to lose with me means the world to me.
"I'm in a place that I'm glad to be at for the first time in my life. I feel stable for the first time - there's been some worries from my fans that I'll start writing happy songs all of a sudden, but that's nothing they have to worry about.
"I was in an unhappy place for a lot longer than I've been happy, and I've got that to draw on, too."
Another change has drawn him back to his home in Nashville. Having lived in New York for some time, he's not exactly relishing the experience.
"I find the social scene here just not very interesting," he adds.
"It really is *the* social scene, it's not like New York where you can go four blocks to a different neighbourhood and you won't know anybody. Here everybody knows everybody, and you want to see anybody you have to go to a bar, and while I don't mind going to bars once in a while, that's not all there is to life."
Justin Townes Earle plays the O2 ABC on January 17.
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