Justin Townes Earle: “Can’t Hardly Wait”
Covers Week, Day 3

Can a country singer cover the Replacements? In the case of Justin Townes Earle, absolutely.  The son of legendary badass Steve Earle (and namesake of another Hall-of-Fame Hellraiser, Townes Van Zandt) Justin has already crammed a lot of hard livin’ into his 27 years, a fact he acknowledges with lyrics like “I went down the same road as my old man/But I was younger then”.

There are times on Earle’s latest gem Midnight At The Movies when he does, in fact, sound like Eventually-era Paul Westerberg and he infuses this Replacements classic with the perfect blend of anticipation and regret.

Note: I’m in the middle of transcribing an interview I recently did with JTE… stay tuned.

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