Justin Townes Earle

American troubadour Justin Townes Earle returns to New Zealand this April, bringing with him his timeless songs, tasty picking and charismatic, high-energy performing style. The son of maverick Texas songster Steve Earle - and carrying the middle name of his fatherʼs mentor, the late Townes Van Zandt – Justin Townes Earle may have inherited some of his fatherʼs rebel spirit, yet in many ways the lanky, tattooed 28-year-old has forged his own path and style.

Raised mostly by his mother, the young Earle played as a teenager in both bluegrass and punk rock bands. By the time he reached his twenties he had developed his own playing and writing style, mixing influences as diverse as Texas bluesman Lightninʼ Hopkins, Bakersfield honky-tonker Buck Owens and singersongwriter Randy Newman. He displayed all these influences and more on a series of acclaimed albums, starting with 2007ʼs The Good Life.

His 2010 release, Harlem River Blues has been his most successful yet, debuting at #47 on the Billboard Top 200 and earning him a Song of The Year Award for the title track at the 2011 Americana Music Awards in Nashville. In addition, he has made recent appearances on The Late Show With David Letterman and A Prairie Home Companion, and appeared alongside his father on HBOʼs acclaimed Treme series. In 2010 he was named by GQ magazine as one of “The 25 Most Stylish Men In The World”.

Justin Townes Earle has toured New Zealand before, and last performed here in 2010 and also with Wilco previous. He immortalised some of his feelings for the place and its people in a song on his Harlem River Blues album entitled ʻChristchurch Womanʼ. He returns fresh from the release of his fourth album, Nothingʼs Gonna Change The Way You Feel About Me Now, which sees the restless troubadour moving in a Memphis soul direction.