Even though I spent quite a bit of time growing up in the US, American Country music was never something I was raised with. In fact, with the more generic of the genre being all I was exposed to, I did my best to avoid it entirely. It’s only been in recent years through events like Bluesfest that I have discovered the various types of Country music that are out there – the non-commercial, non-generic music that evokes music straight from the soul, both lyrically and instrumentally.
It’s the sort of music you can imagine a young man singing about on his back porch in the South. Singing songs like “Two Cans of Paint” about moving into a ‘new place with a lady friend’ , “Coming Home” about driving down the road back to Houston or simply lending a hand to a George Jones cover (“The Grand Tour”). This is also the sort of fine music that was performed by Robert Ellis, the Texan who is joining Justin Townes Earle on his intimate tour around Australia. As JTE would go on to point out, Ellis (like JTE himself) is one of the few ‘fingerpickers’ around, a style which is well suited to the genre, as well as a craft, that in JTE’s words, will ‘put lead in your pencil’.
Indeed, Ellis was as talented a guitar player as he was a songwriter and storyteller. As is often the case in traditional Country music, the songs weren’t quite as layered lyrically as you might find in other genres, but rather cut straight to the point and told relatable stories, such as the aforementioned. This more traditional approach to the music comes to Australia thanks to Ellis’ latest album release Postcards, which on the A side is a folk record and then on the B side features a tribute to his Country music heroes, which seeps through on tracks like “What’s in it For Me”.
Title track “Postcards” also made the set as did “Only Lies” and a new track which played against some of the genre’s stereotypes, which basically was a threat to his girlfriend against cheating on him: “when I’m around, you better not have fun with anyone!” With a smile on his face and a dedication to all the ladies in the crowd, this tongue and cheek track showed that he didn’t take it all too seriously.
Following his George Jones cover, which he described as ‘maybe the saddest song of all time’, Ellis closed out the set with “Sing Along”, a track about ‘growing up in the bible belt’, changing the pace slightly before the amiable talent left the stage.
After the usual half hour interlude (though I should point out this was a special daytime event, so at this stage it was barely 4pm), the highly regarded talent that is Justin Townes Earle took to the stage, to sing songs about his parents, ex-girlfriends and… more songs about his parents. Like Ellis, this was a solo and acoustic performance from an artist who enjoyed providing banter for his audience, and proved a terrific entertainer – just in case you didn’t know that about him already.
Though I jest slightly with Justin’s lyrical focus, the man is an incredible lyricist and guitarist. He’s someone who has been able to live in the shadow of his father, but shape his own career and fans in spite of that – a fact that shouldn’t be taken lightly – but it’s unsurprising that so much of his most popular material happens to be about his parents. But in this we can all relate in some way. A worrysome mother, a parent who walks out, a child who feels disconnected from both. We all have either experienced that ourselves or know someone that has. As personal as his music is, we can still find that core relatability to both him and his music, and for the genre this is essential. It says a lot about his on stage persona, too, that he’s able to achieve this on a nightly basis.
Having previously experienced him at Byron Bay’s Bluesfest, it was a joy to get to see the talent in Annandale’s intimate surrounds; and somehow the grimey rock and roll feel to the venue suited the man’s sound, too. The set he played was a snapshot of his career, from Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now‘s “Look the Other Way” (‘any good country song should be a good blues song, too’) and “Unfortunately Anna” (‘a song about the one who got away… but a reminder not to stop the car’), to the fun “Ain’t Waiting” from Harlem River Blues and the popular “Mama’s Eyes” (Midnight at the Movies), he made sure the set was as crowd pleasing as it was self indulgent.
As enjoyable as the music itself was JTE’s banter between tracks. Sometimes introducing the themes behind the next track, at other times just a general statement on music in general. I particularly enjoyed his analysis on artists who only play depressing music ahead of “Ain’t Waiting”, commenting how so many bands feel they need to be the next Elliot Smith – “but Elliot Smith was geniunely fucked up… I knew him!”.
And even in his most personal of lyrics, you’d often hear a laugh come through. Make with that what you will. He also had a new guitar for the evening, which he suggested early on might cause some problems “… wood wants to be a tree, it’s got its own agenda”, but alas it sounded as good as ever to these ears. He finished out the main part of his set with “Wanderin'”, which he dedicated to Woodie Guthrie, saying “Kurt Cobain made me want to play music, but it was Woodie who made be realise that I could…”.
Like Ellis, he fit in a cover or two, with the three track encore including Bessie Smith‘s “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” and Townes Van Zandt‘s “Rex’s Blues”. And with that, and “Halfway to Jackson”, the set was over. We all went back out into the sun and finished our evenings with food, wine and one of those great feelings that we’ve spent a Sunday afternoon the right way. Does it get much better than seeing two talented musicians deliver an amazing show before the sun has set on a Sunday afternoon? Not in my books.
