Tribute album to Justin Townes Earle tries hard but doesn’t quite rise to the occasion.
When does a tribute eat itself? Sammy Brue is a self-confessed Justin Townes Earle superfan. He looks like him. He sounds like him. He dresses like him. He probably talks like him. Earle served as something of a mentor to the young Brue, hailing from Utah with a bio similar to many featured on these pages; didn’t fit in at school, didn’t like cool music, and had a lightbulb moment listening to something broadly of the americana church that set them on their path. It could be Hank, Waylon, Son Volt, The Jayhawks, Springsteen… you know the list. For Brue, already performing solo acoustic folk and blues, the moment had come listening to a Woody Guthrie song. Later on, Earle came to one of the younger singer’s shows, liked what he saw and took him under his wing. An impressive resume of opening bills for the likes of Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Margo Price and Billy Strings followed, while he released his first two albums.
Following the early death of his mentor, Brue was given access to a pile of old notes – journals, stories, half-scribbled song ideas, even some drawings. From these, Brue has pulled together ‘The Journals’, an album in tribute to Justin Townes Earle, with songs based on these scribblings and half ideas but kick-started, ironically, by his own composition “For Justin”. Accompanied only by his own guitar throughout the 11 recordings, Brue leaves us in little doubt as to his sincerity. But unlike the similar Billy Bragg and Wilco records based on unused Woody Guthrie songs, there isn’t much musical light or shade to this record. Opener ‘Lonely Mornings’ sets the tone – slightly wistful without quite reaching a conclusion. The songs focus on telling the story of a moment in time; the excitement of a meeting to come in ‘Promise to Keep’, or the fear of reality kicking in during opener ‘Lonely Mornings’.
It’s not that anything here is bad, it just doesn’t quite rise above the ordinary, and combined with the lack of variety in instrument or singing tone, the eleven songs pass more as background than as the main act. Fans of Justin Townes Earle may enjoy this, but the main impression is of waiting for Brue to step out of the shadows and find his own voice.
