Justin Townes Earle Releasing New Album ‘Absent Fathers’ 1-13-15
That’s right, don’t rub your eyes or adjust your monitors. Justin Townes Earle, who just released his latest album Single Mothers on September 9th, is doing a quick turnaround and releasing yet another brand new full length album Absent Fathers on January 13th, 2015—a companion to his September release that takes its theme from the Single Mothers title track.
Fans who’ve been paying close attention to the second-generation performer (Earle’s absent father was alt-country performer Steve Earle) shouldn’t be too surprised at this announcement. On numerous occasions Justin Townes Earle alluded that a double album was on the way before Single Mothers was announced. After Justin resolved his five album contract with Bloodshot Records, he found himself in the midst of an intense battle with the British-based label Communion Records owned in part by Ben Lovett, otherwise known as the accordion and keyboard player of Mumford & Sons. According to Earle, the company expected him to turn in 30 songs per his contract, which the label could then par down into an album release. Earle refused, and eventually parted ways with Communion, signing with California-based label Vagrant Records and announcing the release of Single Mothers.
Justin’s idea of a double album to make up for the lost time while battling with Communion was apparently scrubbed for two close releases because of the logistical issues of a double release. As Earle explained to American Songwriter in August, “There are more songs, maybe for something later early next year, or something. I’m pushing for something, but we’ll see what happens. They were recorded all at the same time, it’s not that they didn’t make the record, it was just easier to put out a regular record, a double is a little more complicated.” Apparently Justin got his wish, and we’ll be hearing the rest of the songs come January.
Earle has received critical acclaim for his music and songwriting since releasing the Yuma EP in 2007. In 2009 he won the Americana Music Award for New and Emerging Artist of the Year, and won Saving Country Music’s Album of the Year in 2009 for Midnight At The Movies, as well as SCM’s 2011 Artist of the Year.
Absent Fathers Track List:
1. Farther From Me
2. Why
3. Least I Got The Blues
4. Call Ya Momma
5. Day and Night
6. Round the Bend
7. When the One You Love Loses Faith
8. Slow Monday
9. Someone Will Pay
10. Looking For A Place To Land
October 21, 2014 @ 8:40 pm
I dig the way he’s doing that. Way more exciting than a standard double. Keeps attention on him too.
October 21, 2014 @ 8:42 pm
Woo! Exciting, Single Mothers was my favourite track on the last album. I’m curious of what the album artwork will be. Possibly in the same general location as the last one, except with him and his new wife?
October 21, 2014 @ 8:45 pm
I was actually pretty disappointed with Single Mothers. To me it’s just missing something. Energy, creativity, diversity …. I can’t quite put my finger on it. The only track I actually really like is the title track. JTE is playing here next week and I’m not even bothering to go. I’ve seen him play four times, feels like enough.
October 21, 2014 @ 10:13 pm
I feel the same way. Oddly enough, I think that once he found his sound he sort of stagnated a bit. I personally hated Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now and thought Single Mothers was okay. I wish he would go back to the more americana/country influenced side of his music and let go of the Motown/blues stuff for an album or two.
October 22, 2014 @ 1:20 am
Yeah, that might be it actually. The complete lack of Americana/country on those two albums. It’s a shame he’s gone in a different direction now.
October 22, 2014 @ 7:08 pm
I tend to agree, though I am not sure it is all about genres. I like old Motown, and generally think the blues and country have a lot in common. Yet something about his last two albums seems a little forced or affected to me. R
October 22, 2014 @ 5:52 am
Agreed. He seems to have shifted over to mediocre R&B. I’d rather listen to good R&B and give him a miss entirely at this point. Disappointing because Harlem River and Midnight were great albums.
October 22, 2014 @ 11:44 am
While I think it’s cool how he’s releasing them, I also didn’t care for the last one at all. I couldn’t even get through it. I listened to a few full songs then just kind of skipped through the rest. Not bad, just kind of dull. I wish I would have waited a few days to listen to it because I had the opportunity to see him record a promo show live and meet him, and passed after hearing what he was promoting. I might have still gone had it not meant getting up at the crack of 11am, but wasn’t about to get up at that ridiculous hour to go hear more of that. Hopefully the next one has some soul to it!
October 22, 2014 @ 5:54 pm
This is not country. How can this website, ‘saving country ‘ even say that this is. It’s blues or something, not country. Country has steel guitars and twin fiddles,. Sorry
October 22, 2014 @ 8:58 pm
I never said “this” was country, but I do think Justin Townes Earle has strong country influences, and these were especially evidenced in his earlier work. This is simply a news article relaying information, not some proclamation that Justin Townes Earle is pure country. I’ve always covered roots music that falls under the much wider country umbrella.
October 21, 2014 @ 10:16 pm
I wonder if Steve pays attention to his son’s output at all. It seems like Justin wants him to call or something.
October 22, 2014 @ 7:58 am
He does. I read a recent quote from him where he said Justn’s best songs are as good as anybody’s. A little further back, he siad something like that he told Justin that that there’s nothing more that he could tell him with regard to dealing with the music business because it had changed so much.
When I saw JTE in concert a couple of years ago, he talked about how his mother was having a hard time (he didn’t provide more details) and that he was pissed about it. My guess is that some of that anger is at Daddy.
October 22, 2014 @ 6:29 pm
Definitely anger at Daddy there, but I don’t think I would put that all on Steve. I have noticed in interviews with JTE that when he slipped back into using he was much more negative about Steve, and before/after he says they have a good if not close relationship. Also, he said in one interview that he moved back to Nashville because his mother had some mental health issues and didn’t have access to help. I think the frustration was more about the health care system (or lack thereof.)
October 22, 2014 @ 7:10 am
I thought this was a joke but looking forward to the new album
October 22, 2014 @ 7:04 pm
Steve’s got a new album coming out early next year as well. It will be called Terraplane and lean toward blues/blues rock. He and the band are recording this week. Steve and Justin have managed to stagger their albums so they don’t put one out the same year. It will be interesting to see how the press responds.
October 24, 2014 @ 7:28 pm
There probably won’t be much response, if any. No one ever seemed to care when Hank Jr. and Hank3 released albums in the same timespan. Unless they’re collaborating, I don’t see this news being anything more than incidental.
October 23, 2014 @ 12:04 pm
I was a huge JTE fan before “Nothings Gonna Change…” came out. The stylistic changes, not just in the music but in his voice kind of turned me off. I did eventually buy the album but it was overall sleepy and very emotional. So when “Single Mothers” came out, I wasn’t rushing to pick it up either seeing how this one is more sleepy than the last one. I do like however that it had plenty of steel guitar. I hope this new one is a return to form, or at least a somewhat different sound, and has some more uptempo songs.
October 24, 2014 @ 9:37 pm
This ^. While I haven’t been a fan for long, Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now made me question whether I even liked Justin’s music, and this was after loving every one of his previous albums. It was dry and just plain hard to listen to. His mangled vocals didn’t help matters and all of the tracks seemed to run together. When your album runs just over 30 minutes and it feels too long, something isn’t right. However, Kevin, you should definitely seek out Justin’s Eastside Manor Sessions EP on NoiseTrade. It’s free and actually lets the material from Single Mothers breathe a bit more.
October 26, 2014 @ 3:26 pm
Yea I have the NoiseTrade sessions and they’re great.
I kind of just miss his older style of singing that has more of a twang to it. Now when he sings, he sounds like he’s straining his vocal chords and almost like he’s going to cry.
October 23, 2014 @ 12:40 pm
Im glad im not the only one that thought his last effort was weak, was a big fan but after his last 2 efforts i am drifting away from JTE and his new approach/experiment with music.
December 2, 2014 @ 5:03 am
Sadly I agree with the sentiments here, and as a devoted fan I find it tough to admit that I’m left underwhelmed by much of the new material. The signs were there with the NGC.. and the recent songs seem malformed, even aimless and struggle with a genre he’s yet to get to grips with.
It’s never right to expect an artist to keep still for ever more, just for the benefit of the audience, however I do miss his ability for strong traditional, yet effortlessly cool tunes. Living in England he is everything I wanted my country music to be. I’ve seen him 4 times now. The first was with Cory Younts, and the audience knew that they were in the presence of greatness.
I don’t feel the self production is working either. I’m sure that a lot of these songs could have been saved by not accepting half assed vocals or too loose arrangements.
The new single from Absent Fathers follows in the the same vein as SMs with a tune desperately trying to get out.
I’m sure he’ll turn it around but I would welcome a move away from the over internalizing. Steve Earle clearly wasn’t the greatest dad, but I think we’re all aware of that.
Now I’ll completely contradict myself as this one is epic – maybe ‘cos it’s just him. And another thing. I miss his guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4qW53SrLt0&list=UUsBSoeCp-bjQemyo2Ec99UA