Country Fried Rock 1519: Justin Townes Earle Explains Companion Albums 'Single Mothers' and 'Absent Fathers'

Speaker A: 00:01:29

Welcome to Country Fried Rock. This week we're talking with Justin Towns Earl. Over the last year or so, he's released a couple of new records from his current label, Vagrant.

First Single Mothers and then Absent Fathers. Not exactly a double album. More like companion albums.

Speaking of companions, this is the first time we've done a live in studio interview for Country Fried Rock. I was hanging out in Columbia, South Carolina at a radio station with my friend Mike Allen.

And Mike knew that I'm a fan of Justin's, so he invited me into the station and let me sit in on part of this interview. I held onto this for a while because of the different format, but it's a great conversation so we're going to go ahead and share it.

A slightly different format for Country Fried Rock with Justin Towns Earl.

Speaker B: 00:02:16

I'm Justin Towns Earl and I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. Actually. Born and raised there. Rare thing.

Speaker C: 00:02:22

Okay. And our friend Sloan, tell her about who you are.

Speaker D: 00:02:25

Oh, hey, I'm Sloan Spencer. I host Country Fried Rock. I'm originally from Atlanta, but I currently live in Back Swamp, South Carolina.

Speaker B: 00:02:31

Yeah.

Speaker C: 00:02:32

And welcome to the big city. You mentioned Nashville. I was reading a little bit background for this. You're living in New York now?

Speaker B: 00:02:40

Well, I had been living in New York. Some family things. I had to do some things for my mother.

So it made good sense at the time to go where it's a little cheaper so I could, you know, do those things. And I definitely miss New York in a. In a big way. But I have a feeling that if I hadn't left, I.

Well, I wouldn't have met my wife probably, which would have been. I'd still be continuing on my lethargic, very disappointed in life way.

Speaker C: 00:03:11

It's a hard way to look at it, I guess. Different places bring out, I think, different sounds for artists. What did. Is there a difference between Nashville and New York for you, sonically?

Does it do anything to the writing?

Speaker B: 00:03:23

It does. I think I had a. New York was so inspiring.

There was just songs came in a bit more of a flood there because you were just surrounded by all these intense things. You just have people that are the best at what they do and it's constant competition. You can be gone tomorrow.

And even working in a clothing store in New York, you know, so there was very much. The people that you're around aren't. You're not going to say like how you doing to somebody?

And they're going to be like, well, I don't have a job and I'm sitting Around the apartment and I'm doing this. Everybody's like, well, I got this going on and I'm doing this. Or I'm trying to do this. And it's a very interesting place to live for that reason.

Speaker C: 00:04:03

Slow.

Speaker D: 00:04:04

Well, it's interesting. You just actually did something that was. One of my questions was you're animated and up tempo when talking about some pretty serious content.

And I see that or hear that at least in a lot of your songs as well. How do you express that contrast?

Speaker B: 00:04:18

A lot of my fans do find they think that my songs are very autobiographical and things like that, which they're not so much.

I definitely know what I'm talking about because I think that's the first rule to songwriting is know at least have your interpretation of the feelings the. That you're going for. But, you know, I think that I don't know the. I think if I'm confused every time I make a record and I always.

I don't think I want to get to the day where I don't question whether my record is good. And, you know, every night on stage, I typically. I turn to Paul, my guitar player, and be like, is everything like rhythm okay?

And all this because I don't think that it is a very good thing to be, I'm sure myself as far as a performer and I mean as a writer, but I just don't think that it's. To be an artist, you can't know everything. You gotta still have stuff to learn, I think.

Speaker A: 00:05:16

Hey, y', all, this is Sloane Spencer, the host of Country Fried Rock. We've had an incredible year with more people finding us on the radio and our podcast than we ever imagined. Thank you all so much.

Careful what you wish for. You just might get it. Here's more from my live in studio conversation with Justin Towns.

Speaker C: 00:05:35

Earl, I've seen a couple of pieces where you've described your music. Instead of putting it in another sort of label, you would describe it as Southern America. What is Southern American?

Speaker B: 00:05:45

Well, basically, with the exception of some forms of music today. Well, and still kind of every bit of American music, popular music, with the exception of hip hop and things like that, came the ideas.

The starting point of it was all in the Southeast, where you have mountain music coming from.

The Scotch Irish that settled in this region and up in North Carolina, bluegrass from Flatland, Kentucky and the West Nashville with country Memphis, you know, you have jazz and New Orleans and then the Delta and everything comes together at Memphis and becomes rock and roll. So I think Southerners should And if they try should have a better connection to that because it's in. We understand the language a little bit better.

We can they Talk Like we do, which was a number.

Like when I heard Woody Guthrie for as an example, I realized that I could do this because I realized that I could actually sing better than Woody Guthrie. So I decided that it was. I could at least try.

Speaker D: 00:06:51

I'm always interested in the contrast and like my previous question as well. But as a Southerner, I think we kind of live with and accept contrasts as part of who we are and what we do.

I'm noticing a little bit more of the Southern contrasts coming out in these last two records especially specifically.

Speaker B: 00:07:07

Yeah, I. I feel like that we have in the south and then some places like Louisiana especially, we have the most distinct culture in America. Our nobody has the huge difference in food. Nobody has the huge difference in culture. And it's.

It's a completely different world and very alien to the rest of the United States. A lot of misconceptions and we had a lot of misconceptions about the north, but the, the south has always been. It's always been home.

I do feel very comfortable in the. In the south and I think that it's.

I stayed away from kind of a lot of Southern mentality, a lot of Southern imagery for a while because I didn't want to be just labeled a Southern musician. I didn't want to be. I didn't want to get stuck in that old timey country thing.

I made my first record, the Good Life and it taught me a lot of things because I especially as far as contrast goes, because the contrast between my crowd when I put out the Good Life and now just in who gathers is. I mean, I noticed that I was going to have the Grand Ole Opry crowd, I was going to have an older crowd.

And let's face it, nobody needs a crowd that's going to die in 20 years. So that's, you know, I started because of that. I was completely disappointed when I did the Grand Ole Opry. I found it very.

Just mechanical and strange. And so I knew I didn't want to be a part of that world. I wanted. I wanted a younger audience. And I do have a vast. I mean, what comes to the.

I have entire families of father, son and mother that come to the show. I have, you know, girls that at least look like they're 18 to 25 and then middle aged couples. And so it's very much a scattered crowd.

And also something that that contrast is. I'M very proud of it because, you know, that's a very wide reaching kind of audience there. You know, not like I draw gigantic crowds or anything.

It's just the contrast between those. This crowd is. It's incredible. And it's helped me change what I do because the crowd's gone along with me.

I'm sure I've lost a lot of the fans from the first record. And, you know, and that's fine. I only off all the right people, I feel. And so that's.

Speaker C: 00:09:36

That's a goal in life.

Speaker B: 00:09:39

And so, yeah, I think that that's the South. And making sure that there is a fairly vast contrast between my previous records and the new ones is very, very important to what I do.

You don't want to ask. Ever be asking yourself the question, is this art? You know, I don't think so.

In order to do that, you have to pay respect to the past and gather what you want from your current. Let's play today in a Lonely Night. It's a.

It's become one of my favorite songs to play and one of those things again where I think I'm lucky that I have a crowd that will. That will listen to things like this. And you won't. You won't. Well, most of the time it won't.

You won't really hear a sound unless it's a free show in Merrill's Inlet.

Speaker A: 00:10:29

Hey, y'. All. This is Sloan Spencer, the host of Country Fried Rock. Those of y' all who listen on our podcasts, it's a quick hit of just the conversation.

If you want the full radio program with all the songs that we talk about, ask for it on your local radio station, joining 20 other stations across the country. Get the goods@country friedrock.org I'm Sloane Spencer, your host of Country Fried Rock.

I've had the pleasure of catching Justin Towns Earl perform both solo duo and with a full band over the last couple of years. And I recommend you catch one of his shows. Here's more from my live in studio conversation with Justin Towns. Earl.

Speaker C: 00:11:06

This dichotomy here, and they. They actually look dramatically different. Tell me about what used to be a double album became two single albums.

Speaker B: 00:11:15

I thought better of the situation that I was in. I'd gone from Bloodshot Records, which was a great relationship. They were as stand up as you can be.

When they said the check was coming, the check showed up, things like that, which is hard to find. And then I went to Communion Records, which I was told something completely different from what they tried to do when I had signed the contract.

Luckily, they didn't sign it. And I was able to just be like, you know, you're not gonna shake money in my face and win.

You know, there's no way that's gonna work, you know, and anybody who knows me knows that. So. There was also a time. There was a timing issue. Releasing a double record is hard to convince people of. It's hard to get people these days to.

They don't have the time to sit down and listen to a full hour of music, you know, and they don't have the attention span, I don't think. And from the very beginning, I like when I made the Good Life. I actually looked up what the average commute for an American to work was.

And so therefore all my records have been 30 to 40 minutes. That's what I've noticed. Most people listen to music is in their car and just making the records digestible, letting people get really in use to the.

The record, the first one. And if they pay attention to the first one, then Absent Fathers comes out. And they're very.

They are related, but related in the same way that both discs of the river are Springsteen's the river because it's. They're not like concept records exactly, but they have loose concepts to them. The characters in Absent Fathers are definitely in a different.

A better place, a different place.

Not discouraged by life, realizing that they're seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, even though it's like the tip of a ballpoint pen way off in the distance.

Speaker D: 00:13:16

We've been talking about all these contrasts and dichotomy in the double album that became two separate albums. I have been interested in the continuity of your album covers. Are you involved in the visual art decision making?

Because didn't Joshua do some of your photography?

Speaker B: 00:13:29

Yeah, he did, but I'm 100% part of the creation of them. We decided me and Joshua were, like, trying to figure out what a record cover we should do. And we'd thrown out a bunch of ideas.

And I said, well, what about just me and a girl on the album cover? And we carried that on for quite a while, every record. But now my wife is on the COVID of Absent Fathers with me, and she will be the last.

The last woman on the COVID of one of my records. But it was an interesting thing to do for the fans in a minor way. They became like Bond girls. People were very interested in who these women were.

And so it was a funny thing we realized when we made the Next Midnight at The movies that we were just like, we're gonna do this every time. I would have probably continued it if I hadn't gotten married.

Speaker C: 00:14:31

You mentioned past troubles with record companies. The relationship with Vagrant feels good.

Speaker B: 00:14:36

s and early: 2000

And they're no longer a smaller record label. They're one of the bigger independent record labels. And that's. That's impressive.

They obviously know what they're doing, and I think that being able to do. Doing these records, I needed people that would understand.

I have so many people say that these are country records, and Vagrant realizes that they're not country records. I have a very.

I personally have an extremely narrow view of what country music is, and I think that Hank Williams would have no problem shooting just about anybody that's a country star these days. I just don't think he would have trouble with that. If I called what I do country music, he'd probably shoot me.

Speaker A: 00:15:31

I'm your host, Sloane Spencer. You can keep in touch with us on Facebook.

But I really like Twitter, where we are at Country Fried rock ending with R O K. And if you want to see pictures of my shoes, my dog, and my lunch, stop by Instagram. But whatever way you like to hang out, stop by and say, hey.

We'd like to send a big thank you to our Country Fried Rock listeners for supporting Country Fried Rock alum Alan Thompson, who is recovering from a diving accident.

If you'd like to donate, every dollar matters and it goes directly to helping defray his bills, you can find that link on Country Fried Rock's Facebook or Twitter. It's a you caring donation page. Keep your ears peeled for a few different benefit shows in the Nashville area for Alan Thompson. We love you, man.

Get better soon. We'll go back to my conversation live in the studio with my friend Mike Allen and Justin Towns.

Speaker B: 00:16:22

Earl Round the Bend is, you know, it's one of those. The songs where you has a cavalier attitude, a very unrepentant attitude about it.

And I think that it's like we said earlier, I do like to talk very upbeat about very dark situations and things like this. And I actually wrote it from a dealer I went to. It was. He was around a Ben. Always in a dead end.

You know, this is a little bit more autobiographical than mine.

Speaker D: 00:16:59

I've actually gotten to see you several times over the last couple of years, and I've noticed that a lot of your songs have really grown since they were originally recorded. How do your songs continue to change?

Speaker B: 00:17:08

Well, I have a. I couldn't really explain it until I heard Dick Spiderbeck, a quote from him that said somebody asked him to play a chorus like he did on a record. They wanted to hear that specific chorus. And he said, well, I can't. And they were like, well, why? And he said, because I never feel the same twice.

So the songs can change nightly, tempo wise, just depending on how I'm going that night and things like that. But like the show tonight, it's just me and my guitar player Paul, and he also plays pedal steel.

So the songs have to change quite a bit to do that because we have to fill up that space in order to keep from being a boring, regular old acoustic act. Which it needs to be something a little more than that, I feel, to represent the records.

But that doesn't always mean that you need to play them exactly like you do on the record. You know, a lot of times you start playing them on the road and you find that little thing where you're like.

Like I. I wish I'd had, remember, had that for the record, you know, and that, that always happens because you get it. Get out on the road with it. You. I change, I change. I'll change a little lyric every now and then.

I'll change the melody of songs and make them faster, make them slower. And so it's. Yeah, it's. It's a constantly evolving thing, especially with the band because me and the.

My guitar player, my bass player, parts guys, they play parts. Me and the drummer are in no way parts players.

You know, you don't know what you're gonna get from us every night, but you know, we're gonna be there when it's. When we're gonna be there when it's time to hit the one, you know, and that's me and my. Me and my drummer. I've been by the bass player.

Mark Headman has played with him, Matt Pence, for, you know, almost 20 years. And so that's what Marks, Mark said early on. He's like, you just have to trust Matt that he's going to be there. He will be, you know.

And so playing with him has made me a lot, I think a better, more adventurous guitar player than I was too. And it makes it a. It's a. Yeah, it's great.

Speaker C: 00:19:22

Do you ever work things on the road before you go in the studio or.

Speaker B: 00:19:24

No.

Speaker C: 00:19:25

Is it always after the fact?

Speaker B: 00:19:27

Well, we, we do, we do A little bit. I try not to do too much just because there's certain spontaneity with everything. Every aspect of a record is very. I think that's very important.

People who rehearse too much, I mean, you can tell it. You can be a great, great band. I mean, the best players in the world. But if you're too on top of it, you know, it's too. It seems inhuman.

And it's kind of boring after a while because you just know all this stuff is gonna happen that's gonna be clean as a whistle. There's nothing dirty about that. And when you kind of. When you clean it up too much and make it kind of squeaky clean, that's.

You lose me there, you know, you lose me completely. I'm very much influenced by Billie Holiday. As a singer. I will never land on the one. As a singer.

I come in late and late to where it scares bass players and things that, you know, aren't prepared for it. I don't agree with Perfectly Tuned. I don't agree with.

I don't agree with a lot of rehearsal because I hire my musicians, because I trust my musicians to do. And I. Every musician in my band, I've been watching since I was a teenager.

They're all at least 10 years older than me, and so it's amazing having them. And it hasn't disappointed me after all this time. They were.

Paul was in calexico for about 10 years, and Matt Pence and Mark Hedman were in one of my favorite bands ever, called Centromatic out of Denton, Texas. I know they broke up and we saw that. I saw that. Me and my wife went to the show in Nashville and I couldn't. I couldn't help it.

I saw him a few weeks later and I was just like, man, the show is great. But it was. It felt like a funeral, you know, it felt like a funeral. Like a band that had been around for almost 20 years and just been consistent.

They never made any money, but they made amazing records. And they're that band that you're just like, why? Why?

You know, kids and all kinds of things happen, you know, I can't blame them for wanting to take a rest from it, but I'm pretty sure that by. In about five years, four years, we will have another Centromatic record. They may not tour, but I think there will be another Centromatic record.

It's too. Too good to not do. Plus, I want to make a record with Centromatic. It's my backing band.

Thank you so much for having me and get there early to see Gil Landry. He's quite a quite a performer.

Speaker A: 00:22:06

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