Remember that warm summer night when we sat on the dock, swinging our feet just above water bugs doing figure eights in Lake Houston? You told me that you liked her a lot, but she didn’t feel the same way. I want to apologize for bumbling and fumbling in an attempting to put a few comforting words together, but I really had no clue why she didn’t like you back. We’re older now and all that I’ve really learned that is relationships are complicated. Expectations, trust, happiness, loneliness, sadness (most all of the nesses) life is chock FULL of them.
Justin Townes Earle’s songwriting style is somewhat conversational and so the songs on his latest album Absent Fathers remind me of sitting around with a friend for a few hours sipping beers, swatting at mosquitoes, and talking about heartache. This is the part in the review where I’m supposed to refer to his last album Single Mothers as a “companion” album to Absent Fathers and then we all smugly chuckle at the irony like jerks. While his voice snarled in places on Single Mothers, on this album JTE sounds as if he’s come to terms with the pain of abandonment that will always be there. It’s far more subtle of an approach, yet Absent Fathers continues down a cathartic highway littered with empty promises, uncertainty and anguish. A party rock album this is not, but there’s beauty in the delivery from the forlorn pedal steel guitar work of Paul Niehaus (Calexico, Lambchop, many more) to Earle’s “this is me, so just deal with it” songwriting style.
Thank Peter, Paul & Mary this album isn’t just ten songs about Earle’s much publicized troubled relationship with his famous dad. Even though the album’s first track “Farther From Me” IS a very direct message to his father as JTE sings, “Wish I could say I didn’t know you” and “I’ve suffered for your foolish heart and your desperate needs” The lyrics feel far less like a drunken fight at the Earle family reunion and more like reluctant acceptance. The song ends perfectly with an ascending and descending guitar riff that invokes imagery of someone either walking up and down a flight of stairs or pacing. Super smart.
Very rarely does Absent Fathers navigate away from analyzing damaged relationships. Damage that JTE has caused himself on “Call Ya Mamma” and damage that he’s endured on “Least I Got The Blues” with piercing lyrics like “You’re no woman. A woman’s got heart” Heck, I could have transcribed that whole song here, because it’s terrific. I love the bleeding hearted line…“Nothing is gonna change the way I think about you, I’m just another link in a chain of fools, Least I know now what a woman can do and I still got the blues”
Aside from Justin Townes Earle’s distinctive lyrical style, what’s great about this album is the sparseness. It’s so quiet on some tracks that you can hear him breathing as he fingerpicks that acoustic guitar that I’ve seen him make roar during live shows. As a long-time fan, I wouldn’t suggest that this album is the best place to start as a new listener. Maybe start with 2010’s Harlem River Blues and work your way towards Absent Fathers. If you’re looking for unique songwriting with a sincere to-hell-with-the-consequences delivery, you should really be listening to Justin Townes Earle.
Album Rating: 3/5