Justin Townes Earle - Kids in the Street

The Guardian 60

(New West)

Album number seven looks like a turning point for Justin Townes Earle: it’s his first not to be recorded in Nashville (he decamped to Nebraska with producer Mike Mogis) and his first since settling down and getting married. Tellingly, there’s a quiet contentment replacing the bleakness that marked 2014/15’s companion Single Mothers/Absent Fathers sets. Never one to be constrained by the straitjacket of country orthodoxy, Earle infuses his songs with elements of classic soul (Champagne Corolla) and jazz (the delightfully breezy What’s Goin’ Wrong). Best of all, though, is the title track, a moving reflection on the gentrification of the Nashville neighbourhood in which he grew up.