1tzgMd8Nd

MUSIC
©Photo by Joshua Black
Part of the change reflects
the singer’s current lot. He’s been
happily married for a year, and his
wife’s steadying presence caused
him to go back into the material
and, in his own words, “remove
some of the bitterness.” Which
isn’t to say the album is a jaunty
affair—far from it, actually—and
the lightest Earle gets arrives on
the honky-tonk burner “My Baby
Drives,” about yielding some semblance
of control in a relationship.
The largely downcast tone is purposeful:
Earle constructed Single
Mothers as the first part of a double
LP, and a second album, tentatively
titled Absent Fathers, might
be released as early as next year.
Collectively, the two are expected
to paint a picture of a fall into and
steady climb out of depression.
For now, however, listeners are
left largely with half of the equation,
Earle singing: “It’s cold in
this house/All the lights are out”;
“Everyone who walks out takes a
bit more of you with her”; “I’m not
drowning/I’m just seeing how long
I can stay down”; “It don’t take a
twister to wreck a home.” Most
songs here read as universal rather
than baldly autobiographical, existing
as snapshots or vignettes
portraying a range of damaged
characters. Vide, the guilt-wracked
narrator excavating the remains of
past relationships on “Burning Pictures,”
the lost soul searching for
connection on the Billie Holidayinspired
“White Gardenias,” the
strangers seeking shelter from the
storm on the simmering, countrysoul-flecked
“Worried Bout the
Weather.”
Occasionally Earle dips more
explicitly into his own past. Such
is the case on the achingly forlorn
title track, on which he appears
to takes aim at his father, famed
singer-songwriter Steve Earle, who
left his mother when the younger
Earle was only two, breeding a resentment
Justin Earle has held to
throughout his ascendant career.
“Absent father/Oh, never offer even
a dollar,” the younger Earle sings,
flashing a careful, nuanced approach
to his vocal phrasing. “He
doesn’t seem to be bothered/By
the fact that he’s forfeit his rights to
his own.”
While the emotions in the
songs can spike as the characters
unravel knotty internal issues, the
music remains even-keeled—and
Earle’s songwriting exhibits a
steadfast and hard-won grace in
the face of great turmoil. It may
have taken some time, but it’s finally
starting to sound like the kid
is alright. —Andy Downing
48 TONE AUDIO NO.66
October 2014 49