Steve Earle to Release Justin Townes Earle Tribute Album
Steve Earle and his backing band The Dukes will be releasing a record of songs written by Steve Earle’s late son Justin Townes Earle who passed away in late August at the age of 38.
Though details are still coming together, Steve Earle announced the album on Wednesday, September 16th, saying that the band was planning to record the album in October, with the hopes of a January 2021 release date through New West Records—the label both Steve Earle and Justin Townes Earle were signed to when Justin Townes Earle passed away. 100% of artist advances and royalties will go to a trust for Justin’s daughter, Etta St. James Earle.
The album will come in a succession of tribute records Steve Earle has recorded, including covering the songs of fellow troubadour songwriters and close friends Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. Steve Earle released Townes in 2009, and Guy in 2019.
The death of Justin Townes Earle was announced on August 23rd via his official social media channels. “It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin,” the message read. “So many of you have relied on his music and lyrics over the years and we hope that his music will continue to guide you on your journeys. You will be missed dearly Justin.”
Fans concerned for what happened to the Nashville native received a partial answer when Metro Nashville police spokesperson Don Aaron explained on August 25th that police and fire had responded to Earle’s apartment in Nashville after receiving a request for a welfare check from a friend. When police arrived at the residence, they had to force entry into the residence, and found no signs of struggle or foul play in the apartment.
Though the death is currently labeled “unclassified” pending findings from the Medical Examiner’s Office in Nashville, police preliminarily determined Earle’s cause of death to be a “probable drug overdose.”
However Saving Country Music has been able to confirm from numerous sources that in the weeks leading up to Justin Townes Earle’s death, he had been suffering from a severe case of pneumonia, and had been hospitalized due to the illness, and required surgery on his lung. At the time of his death, Earle was still recovering from the condition, and was “very weak.” Autopsy and toxicology reports can regularly take six weeks or longer to conclude.
Justin Townes Earle was married in October of 2013 to Jenn Marie Maynard, who gave birth to their daughter Etta in June of 2017. A public memorial service is also said to be in the works for 2021.
September 16, 2020 @ 2:31 pm
Be interesting to see the song list.
I’m looking forward to this one.
September 16, 2020 @ 4:11 pm
Still can’t believe it. He was such a unique talent. Amazing songwriter. But his music will live on.
September 16, 2020 @ 5:27 pm
Really looking forward to this album. What a great way for Steve to pay tribute to his son and raise money for his granddaughter.
September 16, 2020 @ 5:45 pm
I would think this would be extremely hard to do but will help with the grieving process. Looking forward to this and a great way to keep JTE music alive
September 16, 2020 @ 6:25 pm
Now he decides to be involved in his son’s life.
September 16, 2020 @ 8:45 pm
I knew at least one asshole would shoot their cockholster off. Justin travelled and toured with his father for years (starting as a teen) before he struck out on his own. Steve did his best to make up for lost time and did his best to be in the kid’s life (and help him get sober). So shut the fuck up.
September 17, 2020 @ 3:13 am
Jimmy;
Not exactly the words I would have chosen but the sentiment is bang on.
I’m most interested in hearing the upcoming tribute album that Steve puts out and I hope it gives him some closure.
( I sure would like to hear “Lone Pine Hill” . my favourite JTE song ….)
WEB
September 17, 2020 @ 6:11 pm
@ jimmy
What happened to “shit, piss, cunt, and tits”? How’d you miss those words?
September 18, 2020 @ 9:12 pm
I went to see JTE in concert and he had all the seats removed from the venue where everyone would have to stand. There were about 40 people there in a hall that seated 350. He referred to the crowd as “You motherfuckers … “. He was a decent musician but his head was way bigger than his talent ever was.
Sorry about there truth but that’s the truth.
September 16, 2020 @ 8:47 pm
He has been involved since he got sober when JTE was a teen. Justin minimized the connection for publicity, and Steve was not an ideal father, but there is plenty in JTE’s interviews to suggest they had a solid relationship.
September 17, 2020 @ 6:00 pm
I refer to this line from his song, “Single Mothers”.
“absent father, never offer even a dollar… absent father is long gone”.
Truth in music, right from his own mouth.
Steve Earle is like many in his camp. Do as I say, not as I do. Isn’t he supposed to have compassion on the weak, stand up for the downtrodden and forgotten? That is what is in many of his protest and social justice songs.
Yet ex-wives (6 I think) and two children are strewn in his path’s wake. I have ZERO respect for him. He does not walk the walk he preaches to everyone else.
He is phenomenally talented, and an inherent hypocrite. Glad his life is straitened out from what it used to be. But one cannot go back and re-enter past years.
In other words, another Pelosi without a mask in a closed beauty shop. Point the finger and tell others how to have compassion and what they should do and like. But their own shoes walk a different path than their pontificating. I mean, a post 9/11 song called “John Walker’s Blues”? Is that really the best he could do? And yes, I do understand the meaning behind the song, but still.
Buy hey, to be fair and balanced, I give him credit for this statement, ““I thought that, given the way things are now, it was maybe my responsibility to make a record that spoke to and for people who didn’t vote the way that I did,” he says. “One of the dangers that we’re in is if people like me keep thinking that everyone who voted for Trump is a racist or an a**hole, then we’re f***ed, because it’s simply not true.”
No doubt he mourns his loss and no parent should have to go through that. I hope the record does well for Steve’s grand-daughter. Now, excuse me while I crank up “Copperhead Road” and go back in the day.
September 17, 2020 @ 7:20 pm
Songs are not always meant to be exact biography, and that song in particular captures a moment in time. Justin himself says his songs are composites, not always directly about himself.
He had his own demons and was not always an easy person to be around when he was using/ drinking. Interviews from Talk to people who know/knew the two and you will get a more complex picture of their relationship. Steve was by no means a perfect father, but he was not completely absent once he got sober, either. Steve left a lot of damage through his drug use, including all but one of those divorces, but so did Justin. Sounds like you really do’t like his politics, but don’t confuse the two.
September 17, 2020 @ 8:21 pm
This is reasonable. I do have a great story on John Mellencamp which is similar in some ways.
September 18, 2020 @ 11:40 am
If you really want to dig into their personal lives, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a politician or artist who’s not a “hypocrite” or whom you can “respect.”
Everyone from. Pelosi got her hair done? She’s probably done a lot worse than that. So has Trump, btw, and he gets his hair done, every day.
Most artists from Picasso to Bing Crosby to the rock era were adulterers or domestic abusers and would be deemed rapists by the current “Me Too” standards (whether for activities with a girl who was a minor or drunk or on drugs–or all three).
November 19, 2020 @ 2:35 pm
Steve is a grade A hypocrite but since his beliefs line up on the left side, he gets a pass. Just like the lockdown governors going to parties.
September 16, 2020 @ 7:23 pm
When I saw the headline, I thought I better see that any money goes to charity, but going to his daughter works too. I don’t know how Steve would be able to do that. My father passed away over a decade ago and I still have a sealed envelope of songs he wrote that my aunt found when clearing out his apartment, and sent to me. I don’t know what it’ll take or when I’ll be able to open that up.
September 17, 2020 @ 3:22 am
Still one of my favorite Steve Earle songs:
https://youtu.be/Do2QIoaMiZw
September 17, 2020 @ 5:34 am
Fantastic song with a strong Springsteen feeling. SE turned me into country music and i’ll forever be grateful to him.
September 17, 2020 @ 6:25 am
Those were the days. I remember seeing him in the early-90s at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey. It was the height of summer. He was skinny as a rail and the place was packed and must have been a thousand degrees. SE was really into it, gave a great, passionate show. He was so skinny and so sweated-up, my friend turned to me and said “It looks like he’s melting!”
September 17, 2020 @ 1:48 pm
I hope this will be on there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7RyT8fmLQQ
I can’t seem to find any other recordings or even mentions of it.
October 5, 2020 @ 6:22 pm
Previous comment was censored.
https://youtu.be/uLN4FXBLH8M
September 17, 2020 @ 7:49 pm
Boy, this’ll be a comfortable session.
September 18, 2020 @ 5:38 am
If you know anything about drug addiction, you must know that it always gets down to the person who is addicted has to help them self. No one, no one can do it for them.
September 18, 2020 @ 11:54 am
Sleep tight Justin..fly high x
September 18, 2020 @ 3:13 pm
After thinking ghost of West Virginia would be a cool album, and buying it as a gift without listening to it, I’m gonna have to wait and hear this one. Steve’s last few records sound like he either can’t breathe or is choosing not to. I may buy this record strictly to help with the trust fund, but won’t have any expectations.
September 18, 2020 @ 11:38 pm
Whatever the relationship between Justin and his father, whether one can believe what has been said or not, it is a sad loss which his father will probably feel. Perhaps he feels some guilt for the past but it is what it is. One cannot change it. I am not sure a tribute album is the right course but the cause is a good one.
October 5, 2020 @ 6:24 pm
Justin and Steve probably need to fulfill a contractual obligation to the same label. Is perfect for publicity.
December 7, 2020 @ 6:12 pm
Steve I am your age, and I followed your son through the years, I first heard him in some bar on Beale Street, and 2 years ago, I offered to pay all expenses just to come sing for my family for one day, and lo and behold, that was the day his daughter was born, your sons music touched my heart, from Yuma to Absent Fathers, I don’t drink, or use but I do spend to much on music………… I just pray he is at peace with himself……. Justin TODAY, you were forgiven………… see you on the other side……..