The Son Also Rises

New York-based, mod-style honky-tonk hero Justin Townes Earle, 28, is something of a living legacy to two of Houston’s revered icons, as anybody with a passing knowledge of regional music history could tell you. His father, San Antonio-born Steve Earle, 55, a Grammy-award winning folk singer and roots rocker, came of musical age in Houston under the tutelage of the late Townes Van Zandt, whom many consider the poet laureate of Texas music.

While the young singer-songwriter’s very name pays tribute to both men, the six-foot-six Earle mainly has himself and his unique talents to thank for his rising profile. His recent album, Midnight at the Movies, landed on numerous Best-of lists for 2009, and also shared space near the top of the Americana Chart with his father’s acclaimed tribute to his old friend Van Zandt, titled Townes; on that album, father and son teamed up for a version of Van Zandt’s “Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold.”

But the younger Earle’s latest remains the real revelation, with its combination of stripped-down acoustic tunes and sophisticated songwriting that allows the singer to step out of his father’s shadow. The songs—including a country-fried version of “Can’t Hardly Wait,” originally released in 1987 by post-punk Minneapolis outfit the Replacements—highlight his natural talent.

Not that being the son of a noted hard-ass like Steve Earle was an easy gig. The older musician was a legendary drug addict who landed in jail before kicking off his musical career in his 30s, when he fell in with Van Zandt. Justin was also nearly derailed by drugs and alcohol as a teen, but he pulled himself together after being dragged to the hospital after an overdose. He’s been clean for the last decade, and will wed his longtime girlfriend on an unspecified date after his current tour. On the ballad “Mama’s Eyes,” he addresses his family baggage: “I am my father’s son / we don’t see eye to eye / and I’ll be the first to admit I’ve never tried.”

In conversation, Earle is willing to give his dad more credit. “My father and I don’t have what you’d call a conventional relationship. But the thing he knows better than anyone is music and songwriting and song structure. So that’s something I took his advice on.”

(The elder Earle now bases in the Big Apple, with his Country singer-songwriter wife Allison Moorer, who was nominated for an Oscar for 1998’s The Horse Whisperer. Like Justin, Moorer collaborated with Steve on the Townes album. Steve previewed the record at multiple Houston appearances in 2009.)

The young Earle lives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side—Nashville, Tennessee is his birthplace—but he’s always felt a strong connection with H-Town, where he opened for the Pogues at the House of Blues in October. “I always have a good time in Texas,” Earle says, his southern drawl intact. “I have family from Houston on up to Fort Worth. I pretty much feel at home there.”