Justin Townes Earle plies several styles on The Saint of Lost Causes, but it reads primarily as a blues album. The topical matter at hand is not pretty. Perhaps it’s because Earle feels fortunate, having conquered his own battles with addiction through stints in rehab, and general bad boy behavior, transforming to a married father with a baby girl. He sees the world differently now and doesn’t like what’s happening to the downtrodden and oppressed. This is a left turn after his previous personal album Kids in the Street. This time Earle has an outward look.
These are individuals and communities all over the country suffering from the ‘great divide” and an increasingly expanding class system that’s eroding the middle. “I was trying to look through the eyes of America, “ says Earle. “Because I believe in the idea of America- That everybody’s welcome here and has a right to be here.” He tells his stories in detail but without judgement. There’s the drugstore-cowboy-turned-cop-killer praying for forgiveness in the gloomy “Appalachian Nightmare,” and the all-too-real cry for help through industrial and economic devastation for Michiganders in “Flint City Shake It.” He sings of the hopeless predicament of a mother dreaming of a better life in “Over Alameda.” He tells the story of the Cuban man in New York City in a repetitive cycle of regret in “Ahi Esta Mi Nina.” There’s the destitute desperate to get to New Orleans in “Ain’t Got No Money.” He rages against the oppressors too as in those “sons of bitches” in West Virginia poisoning the land and the sea in “Don’t Drink the Water.”
The video for the single “Appalachian Nightmare” premiered during the last week of April. Earle’s comment at that time was “I want this song to say that if you are marginalized, you will find any way you can to survive. Drug problems and criminal behavior are not a problem of color, creed, or race.” Here are some lyrical excerpts to give a stronger idea of Earle’s point of view in the narrative – “I was born in Cincinnati/My daddy worked on a river/Work dried up around that time/He took us down to West Virginia/My trouble started early/I was stealing and getting in fights/Smoking and drinking at age thirteen/Skipping class and getting high/When I quit school at fifteen/My daddy put me out/My momma cried and waved goodbye/Never heard such a lonesome sound.”
Not only are these topics all too real with today’s opioid crisis and the widening economic divide, but Earle’s done his homework from a historical perspective too. Today we associate Flint, MI with the poison water but Earle points to the beginning of the decline by the actions of GM – “We built Buick cars/GM trucks/Chevy engines/AC spark plugs/We built planes for the war back in 41’/Every piece straight from the ground on up/Then trouble come in 86’/When this son of a bitch named Roger Smith/He cut our throat with the stroke of a fountain pen/Been knocked down but we gonna get up again”
The album was produced by Earle and his longtime engineer and basses Adam Bednarik and recorded in Nashville. It features excellent guitar work from Joe V. McMahan, who is a versatile but primarily blues-driven player and Paul Niehaus who plays pedal steel in addition to electric guitar. Cory Younts plays harmonica, keyboards and adds background vocals heard to full effect on the shuffling “Flint City Shake It.” Jon Radford plays drums while Earle sings and strums. Only Niehaus returns from the previous album.
Only a confident and fearless songwriter could take on this kind of subject matter and make it resonate. It’s much easier to turn the other cheek, perhaps look inward where things are better, yet Earle reminds us of the world we’re in. By focusing on it, we can all do our part in making it better.
