Single Mothers
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Remembering the lessons learned about Memphis soul on 2012’s Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now, Justin Townes Earle applies the laid-back grooves to his return to alt-country on 2014’s Single Mothers. Where horns punched up his previous album of love and heartbreak, this time it’s pedal steel that pushes around the pieces of his broken heart. There’s an austerity and quickness to his approach that resembles the modesty of Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album. Ten songs in a half-hour guarantee that Earle never mopes. He slows things down for the bluesy soul of the title track and the generally mournful “Picture in a Drawer,” “White Gardenias,” and “Cold in This House.” Each song delves into its own vision of loneliness. For relief, Earle picks up a rockabilly pace for “My Baby Drives,” nails that Memphis groove on “Wanna Be a Stranger,” and appears to question himself over how many times he can replay the drama of dead love on “Burning Pictures.”
