NO Earles in York for ages, then along come two, if not quite at once, then within months of each other.
Steve Earle, rabble-rousing godfather of the American alt country scene, has just been booked by the Grand Opera House for an October 29 gig with his band The Dukes (and Duchesses, as his wife, country singer Allison Moorer, will be with him too).
First to arrive in the city will be his son, Justin Townes Earle, playing The Duchess on Tuesday in support of his album Harlem River Blues.
After many years of touring solo and acoustically, dad Steve, left, is returning to electric mode with his live band The Dukes for a series of shows to showcase his new album, I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, his first collection of original material since the Grammy Award-winning Washington Square Serenade in 2007.
Meanwhile, his long-anticipated debut novel, also called I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on May 12. In it, he imagines the troubled life of Doc Ebersole, who is haunted by the ghost of his former patient and friend, Hank Williams.
Rock musician Patti Smith is among those impressed by Earle’s writing.
“He brings to his prose the same authenticity, poetic spirit and cinematic energy he projects in his music,” she says. “I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive is like a dream you can’t shake, offering beauty and remorse, redemption in spades.”
Son Justin, now nearing 30, was born in 1982 in Nashville, where he grew up rebelliously, rocking out in garage bands and landing himself with a few other unwanted habits. He briefly toured with his old man, playing guitar and keys, until straightening himself out became the priority.
Once back on the right road, he began bashing out solo albums and they now count four, all released on the indie label Bloodshot Records.
Harlem River Blues kicks off with the title track’s choir of backing singers and electric guitar, slow dances through a decrepit tenement on One More Night in Brooklyn and swings à la Jerry Lee Lewis on Move Over Mama. Best of all, Working For The MTA is a modern-day railway ballad, embracing the labour movement in classic folk-singer style over heartbreaking pedal steel from Calexico’s Paul Niehaus.
• Tickets for Steve Earle cost £32.50 on 0844 871 3024 or grandoperahouseyork.org.uk Justin Townes Earle will be supported by James Walbourne and Boss Caine on Tuesday’s 7.30pm bill; tickets are £12 in advance from The Duchess or £14 on the door.
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