Justin Townes Earle
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Harlem River Blues
RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 14, 2010 PRESS CONTACT: Mary Moyer / Sacks & Co. 212-741-1000 / mary@sacksco.com
Justin Townes Earle is an anomaly. He’s tall as the day is long, all angles and elbows and a hard stare, both welcoming and deadly serious. He’s Nashville North, all set up in lower Manhattan now, just like his hero Woody Guthrie, with twang and charm intact.
That hard working earnestness has paid off, to say the least. Justin won the Best New and Emerging Artist at the 2009 Americana Music Awards. His record, Midnight at the Movies, was named one of the best records of last year by Amazon, received four stars in Rolling Stone and found a sweet spot in the blackened hearts of fans and critics alike. GQ Magazine named him one of the 25 best dressed men in the world in 2010. He also appeared on HBO’s Treme with his dad, troubadour Steve Earle, on whose Grammy Award-winning Townes record Justin also guests.
The aforementioned Woody Guthrie once said, “Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple.” On Harlem River Blues, Justin chose the simple route. The record’s not a wall of sound produced to the rafters. It’s rockin’ and reelin’ at times, sweet and slow at others—and it’s great. Like good fried chicken, a well-cut suit and a handmade guitar, there’s heaven to be found in the beautifully crafted simpler things.
Compared to the much-lauded Midnight at the Movies, Harlem River Blues is more mature and increasingly nuanced, while still embracing the raw voice and clean sound of previous standout tracks like “Mama’s Eyes.” Harlem River Blues kicks off hot with the title track’s choir of backing singers and electric guitar, slow dances through a decrepit tenement on “One More Night in Brooklyn,” and swings à la Jerry Lee Lewis on “Move Over Mama.” “Working for the MTA” is a modern day railway ballad, embracing the labor movement in classic folk singer style over some heartbreaking pedal steel from Calexico’s Paul Niehaus. With percussive guitar, killer standup bass lines by Bryn Davies and a guest appearance from Jason Isbell, this record hums along like a 6 train jumpin’ the tracks and heading straight for the Tennessee state line.
Harlem River Blues straddles not only the Mason-Dixon, but time itself. As versed in Mance Lipscomb as he is in M. Ward and sporting Marc Jacobs suspenders, Justin Townes Earle is a man beyond eras. With Harlem River Blues, a record that’s perfect for late Indian summer nights on either the front porch or fire escape, Justin’s found yet another way to be a timeless original.
WINNER: 2009 Americana Music Awards: Best New and Emerging Artist
NOMINATED: 2009 Americana Music Awards: Best Artist & Best Album
Featured in: MAGNET’S BEST OF 2009: AMERICANA
Midnight at the Movies Named Amazon’s 8 Best Country album of 2009! And “Walk Out” one of 100 Best Songs!
Named one of GQ’s 25 Most Sylish Men in the World
Has made appearances on: HBO’s Treme, A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, NPR’s Morning Edition, World Café, and The Grand Ole Opry.
“Harlem River Blues is "proof that Justin Townes Earle will be around, making relevant and interesting music, for a long time to come.” — NPR.org
“The son of Steve Earle and namesake of Townes Van Zandt makes classic country infused rock (or maybe rock-infused country?) that’s spiced up just enough to sound modern.” – TIME
“If you’re not listing to him or checking out what he’s wearing, you should be.” – Esquire
“He’s fully absorbed his genetic and cultural heritage and draws upon both with great skill and dimension ... an utterly distinctive voice that takes what’s come before and artfully moves it forward with the power of a certain steel-driving man.” —LA Times
“19 (of 50 songs Every Man Should Be Listening To) - ‘Mama’s Eyes’ ... Because this is what it is to be somebody’s son. Anybody’s son. Score one for Steve Earle’s kid: It took Dad much longer to write anything this universally significant.” —Esquire
“A gifted performer in his own right.” —NY Times
“Earle has emerged a fully realized artist, with more than a decade’s worth of songs and stories; a rising star who defines himself and his art as Southern American rather than Americana, though the genre has embraced him.” —Pollstar
“Boasting the kind of voice most often found on dust-covered 78s, Earle is undeniably the real thing. His music feels old-fashioned, but in a timeless, not anachronistic, way.” —Tiny Mix Tapes
“Earle sings like a honky-tonk hero and thinks like a 21st century man. He’s sharp and young, and has soul to burn—a traditionalist that is not afraid to play ragtime and cover the Replacements punk anthem ‘Can’t Hardly Wait.’” —Guitar Aficionado
“I have a feeling that in a few years we’ll need backstage passes at the Ryman auditorium to get anywhere near him. He’s just THAT good.” —Chattanooga Free Press
CONTACTS:
MANAGEMENT: Justin Eshak / Mick Management - justin@mickmgmt.com
BOOKING: Andrew Colvin / Ground Control Touring - andrew@groundcontroltouring.com
PUBLICITY: Josh Zanger / Bloodshot Records - josh@bloodhshotrecords.com
Please do not send requests through MySpace. Thank you!
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General Info
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Genre: Blues / Country / Soul
Location US
Profile Views: 1135980
Last Login: 1/30/2012
Member Since 1/7/2008
Website www.justintownesearle.com
Record Label Bloodshot
Type of Label Indie
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Bio
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Members
Justin Townes Earle, Joshua Hedley, Bryn Davies -
Influences
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