Singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle dead at age 38

Justin Townes Earle, an award-winning Americana singer-songwriter and son to country-rock troubadour Steve Earle, has died at age 38. 

"It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin," said a message posted Sunday evening to Justin Townes Earle's verified Facebook page. "So many of you have relied on his music and lyrics over the years and we hope that his music will continue to guide you on your journeys." 

New West Records, Justin Townes Earle's label, confirmed Monday that he died in his Nashville home. A cause of death was not given at time of publication. 

UPDATE:Nashville police release details in death of Justin Townes Earle

Born Jan. 4, 1982, Justin Townes Earle — named after folk songwriter and his father’s friend, Townes Van Zandt — was raised in Nashville by his mother, Carol Ann Hunter. As a teenager, he'd cut his teeth on stage with a weekly gig at Springwater Supper Club. 

“I would play Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin’ Hopkins — blues standards — at Springwater,” he told roots tastemaker No Depression in 2017. “That was the goal: I wanted to be an acoustic blues guy.”

Earle first debuted solo music in 2007, signing to Bloodshot Records and releasing a debut EP, “Yuma.”

In 2008, he delivered his full-length album, “The Good Life” — an extended look into the rich realism he penned in songs that touched folk, blues, soul and country roots. Gaining ears with textured music anchored by nuanced characters, Earle would soon stretch his storytelling to the Grand Ole Opry, Bonnaroo and Americana Music Awards, where he won Emerging Act of the Year in 2010. 

"If you were born here, you've had access to everything from people like Guy Clark and even up to Elvis Costello," Earle told The Tennessean in 2009. "You can run across anybody in this town really easily. You also have the advantage of being really close to Memphis, really close to the Mississippi Delta, and really close to North Carolina. 

“You're right in the middle of where every single bit of American music came from. You have an advantage — if you look for it, you can see the real thing. That stuff's really important."

His critical success continued in 2010 with his third full-length, “Harlem River Blues.” The album’s title track — a foot-stompin’ crossroads of rock ‘n’ roll and soul that sings about drowning in the New York City river — earned Song of the Year honors at the 2012 Americana Music Awards. 

He'd bring a towering performance of the song — backed by Jason Isbell — to "The David Letterman Show" in 2011, Earle's network television debut. 

And Earle intentionally carved an Americana sound that stood apart from his father's defined songwriting, per a 2019 interview with country music website The Boot. The two played "five shows together in 13 years since I started making records," Justin Townes Earle said. 

"... even though it was tough, nobody will ever say that I rode my daddy’s coattails," he told The Boot, adding: "We separated it hard from the beginning, because he wanted me to stand on my own.”

Like his father, however, Justin Townes Earle struggled openly with addiction throughout much of his career. He began using drugs at age 14 and “by the time I was 16 I was completely off the rails,” he told No Depression. 

During his solo career, Earle earned a decade of clean life before relapsing twice and finding sobriety again, per a 2017 interview with Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett. On Schiflett’s podcast “Walking The Line,” Earle said that “I got all my craziness out of the way as a coffeehouse musician and a roadie.” 

Earle had lived in Nashville, New York City and Portland, Oregon, sometimes sharing his disappointment with ongoing gentrification seen in Tennessee's capital city. 

He told The Current in 2017 that the neighborhood he's from — known to Earle as Sevier Park-Sunnyside Neighborhood; called 12 South by many in Nashville today — "ain’t the neighborhood I grew up in." 

"Nashville definitely took a turn where it hasn’t anywhere else, where they don’t want to just get the people out of the building and gut the building, they wanna rip that building completely down no matter how old, how historic it is, who lived in it, whatever," he said. "... It’s definitely not my home anymore, other than the fact that my mom’s there.”

Earle regularly toured and released music for the decade-plus that followed his first solo effort; Nashville-based New West Records debuted his ninth and last studio album, “The Saint of Lost Causes,” in May 2019. 

The post to Earle's Facebook page concludes with lyrics to 2014 song, "Looking for a Place to Land." 

"I've crossed oceans
Fought freezing rain and blowing sand
I've crossed lines and roads and wondering rivers
Just looking for a place to land."

He is survived by his wife Jennifer Earle; daughter Etta St. James Earle; mother Carol Ann Earle; father Steve Earle; and brothers Ian and John Henry Earle. A public memorial service is planned for 2021.