Review: Justin Townes Earle – All In: Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years)
Justin Townes Earle – All In Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years)
Format: CD – Vinyl LP – Digital / Label: New West Records
Release: 2024
Text: Tom Wouters
Justin Townes Earle, son of outlaw country star Steve Earle, was a singer-songwriter who, in his too short career, produced a number of remarkably good albums full of songs written from the perspective of America as a country where everyone is welcome and has the right to be. And because that America is long gone, the incorrigible romantic wrote a large number of songs with poignant and sometimes harrowing lyrics.
In 2017, Earle recorded his first album for New West Records, ‘Kids In The Street,’ followed in 2019 by the album ‘The Saint Of Lost Causes,’ which Rolling Stone Magazine called one of the best albums of 2019.
It would be Justin Townes Earle’s last album. In 2020, he died at the age of 38, leaving behind his wife Jenn and his then three-year old daughter Etta St. James Earle.
The album ‘All In: Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years),’ dedicated to Etta, is an album compiled and produced by his best friend and musical mentor Adam Bednarik and Kim Buie, which reports on the creation of those two albums, especially ‘The Saint Of Lost Causes.’
Together with a 52-page booklet, the album gives a good impression of the immensely talented singer-songwriter. It contains a large number of demos, which Earle recorded at home for ‘The Saint Of Lost Causes.’ It is Justin Townes Earle at his purest, just his vocals and his acoustic guitar. The most beautiful songs, the title song, only heard here as a demo, and Appalachian Nightmare and Over Alameda can be heard in both the demo version and the album version.
The album also features live versions of two songs (Champaign Corolla and So Different Blues), Justin recorded in 2017 for the radio broadcast of Steve Earle’s Outlaw Country Show for Sirius XM.
‘All In: Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years)’ confirms the great talent of a singer-songwriter, fuelled by empathy, baked in the blues and never without something poignant to say.
Tracks:
01. Cold Comfort (Unreleased demo for The Saint Of Lost Causes)
02. Already Gone (Unreleased demo for The Saint Of Lost Causes)
03. I Know You (Unreleased demo for The Saint Of Lost Causes)
04. Troubled Eyes (Unreleased demo for The Saint Of Lost Causes)
05. Lonely Mornings (Unreleased demo for The Saint Of Lost Causes)
06. All or Nothing (Unreleased demo for The Saint Of Lost Causes)
07. If I Was The Devil (Demo for Kids In The Street)
08. Champagne Corolla (Steve Earle Show on SiriusXM)
09. So Different Blues (Steve Earle Show on SiriusXM)
10. Dreams (Unreleased bonus track from The Saint Of Lost Causes)
11. Rocket 88 (Unreleased bonus track from The Saint Of Lost Causes)
12. The Saint Of Lost Causes (Demo for The Saint Of Lost Causes – A work in progress)
13. Appalachian Nightmare (Demo for The Saint Of Lost Causes)
14. Appalachian Nightmare (Album version from The Saint Of Lost Causes)
15. Over Alameda (Demo for The Saint Of Lost Causes)
16. Over Alameda (Album version from The Saint Of Lost Causes)
17. Glory Days (From Dead Man’s Town: A Tribute to Born In The U.S.A.)
18. Far From Me (From Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine)
19. Graceland (Bonus track from Kids In The Street, limited release 7” and digital only)