Justin Townes Earle and Joe Pug Cover Bruce Springsteen
Two of the stronger young Americana voices of 2010 playing a Springsteen song. The connection between their work and his roots.
Justin Townes Earle and Joe Pug are two of the more accomplished young songwriters working in the Americana tradition in 2010. Both are rooted in the country and folk forms that feed into the broader Americana category. The Springsteen cover they perform together is notable for several reasons.
Justin Townes Earle
Earle is the son of Steve Earle and the grandson of the tradition that runs from Hank Williams through Townes Van Zandt (whose first name he carries). His songwriting is in that lineage: economical, rooted, emotionally specific. His voice has a quality of carrying age that is partly genetic and partly chosen.
His 2009 debut, The Good Life, and 2010's Harlem River Blues place him as a significant figure in the continuity of Nashville-adjacent songwriting. Not the Nashville of contemporary country radio. The Nashville of the tradition.
Joe Pug
Pug (born Joseph Pugliese) operates in a mode closer to the folk revival end of the Americana spectrum. His voice is more open, his arrangements sparser. The influence of early Bob Dylan is audible and not denied. What Pug does with the influence is make it his own, which is the thing that matters.
His debut EP Nation of Heat circulated widely before his first proper album. The song quality on that EP — Hymn 101 in particular — announced him as someone with a genuine gift for writing in a tradition while moving it slightly.
The Springsteen cover
The specific song covered is one of Springsteen's Nebraska-era material, drawn from the acoustic end of his catalog. This is the right choice for two acoustic Americana songwriters. The rock architecture is absent. The folk architecture becomes visible.
Justin Townes Earle's voice and Joe Pug's voice work together in a way that is complementary without being matched. They approach the song differently, which makes the ensemble interesting.
For more on Springsteen's roots: Bruce Springsteen Goes Twang. For more on the young Americana scene: Field Notes index.