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February 26th, 2007 @ The Basement—Justin Earle Monday night at his CD release show, Justin Townes Earle performed an intimate acoustic set of songs from his new CD (perhaps EP is more accurate, with a length of only 20 minutes) Yuma. For those of us who have seen Earle perform in recent months, there were no surprises. No additional musicians, no sign of dad, no huge group of friends drinkin' it up to help celebrate the release. Nope, Justin Earle's CD release was no party. Rather, Earle continued to deliver the kind of raw, folk, in-the-round performance he's becoming known for—where the focus is always the song and not the artist. The songs that Justin Earle writes are mostly dark, the way country music used to be and, perhaps, the way the music we call"country" should be. Contrast this with Shawn Byrne's CD release bash just two nights earlier in the same venue, where Kenny Vaughan joined the band for the night, guest singers rolled on and off stage, and all of the front tables were occupied by Byrne's immediate and extended family. The contrast between Shawn Byrne's and Justin Earle's starkly different CD release shows is not meant to criticize Byrne; but rather, it is meant to bring into focus the sincerity and authenticity of Justin Earle. It's as if Earle is saying "So what? A compilation of songs captured on a CD—so what? Now we gotta go sing 'em to the people, maybe they'll like 'em, maybe not. It is what it is." This seems to be the spirit of young Justin Earle, i.e., full acceptance of his destiny to carry on the songwriting legacy of his namesake with no plan B "just in case" like so many other musicians in Music City who are merely hoping and praying to land a deal. For Earle, there's no other way — and he wears it like a prisoner who has accepted and embraced his fate.
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