Record: Justin Townes Earle 'Midnight At The Movies' (2009)

I've got a bit of a soft spot for young Mr. Earle. He's never struck me as having the sheer quantity of raw talent that his daddy was blessed (or possibly cursed?) with, but there's a softness and a prettiness to this record that I've never heard from the elder Earle. I really, really like the atmosphere of nostalgic antiquity, drawing heavily from the 1920s and 30s for musical inspiration, juxtaposed anachronistically with fairly modern lyrics. These songs are nice, which is, for one thing, a bit surprising considering the source, and for another, quite refreshing in this world that tends to glorify nastiness. It's a little bit of an odd listen, haunted as he is by the ghosts of older musicians hanging over his head, but he seems to have chosen to accept that fact rather than to fight it, and I think it's worked wonders for his songwriting.