Justin Townes Earle makes Grand Ole Opry debut Friday

The Saint of Lost Causes

When your Dad's Steve Earle and your namesake is Townes Van Zandt, you probably aren't destined to be a shoemaker. A native of Music City, Justin Townes Earle ate well from the horn of plenty that is the Nashville scene. He kicked around in some bands, but also generally raised a lot of hell. Around 2007, he started releasing albums regularly - "Saint of Lost Causes" is his eighth release and the first since 2017's critically well-received "Kids In the Street. ...

Kids in the Street

With "Kids In The Street," Justin Townes Earle moves comfortably between country, blues, folk and rock. The strongest country tunes are the traditional sounding weeper "What's She Crying For," featuring slick pedal steel guitar work from Paul Niehaus, and the catchy ballad "Faded Valentine," a sweetly melancholic tale of lost love that highlights producer Mike Mogis on mandolin. The nostalgic title track finds Earle reminiscing about his unspectacular childhood ...

Absent Fathers

Fans of the early Justin Townes Earle might be disappointed in the work that fills "Absent Fathers," his 2015 album that shows the once reckless outlaw-wannabe has grown up past the anger and found a home in therapeutic songwriting. For the rest of listeners, however, it's a cathartic and thought-provoking journey through his atonement, not with his muddy past, but instead with his own pain. Earle's voice hints of the same grittiness found in Black Keys front man Dan ...