This is a seamless Steve Earle album in that the tribute to his son Justin Townes Earle sounds as great as any previous from SE and his band The Dukes. This isn't to detract from the songwriting at all, which is Justin's, but to acknowledge how the honouring is from father to son. Justin Townes Earle passed in August 2020, aged 38, and I have always enjoyed his albums too, though I don't know them as well as his dad's.
This 'knowing' is as much a reflection of my age and therefore affinity as anything else. The one song on the album that is distinctive is, naturally, the personal one that closes that album, Last Words, where Steve, who has penned this one, recalls a last phone call with Justin and writes how he had said to his son I love you and his son replied I love you too. There are other straightforward simplicities in this painfully honest recollection, but the repetition of these exchanges is about as uplifting as it can be in such a terrible loss.
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