JTE, ILY.

Oh lord, oh lord, oh my word. 

I'm in love. 

This guy. 

THIS GUY. 

Son of Steve Earle, named for Townes Van Zandt. Looks a bit like Hank Williams with more tattoos. Sort of. My, oh my. Justin Townes Earle.

I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say I've had his tunes playing on repeat at work. Over and over and over again. Especially this one, one song that punches me right in the chest, "Nothing's Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now". The album of the same name was the feature record on the PBS breakfast show a couple weeks ago. It was during my morning slog through the traffic that my ears first sighed at the sound of his voice. What a stroke of luck then, that he was playing just as I disgustedly switched over from Triple J at the sound of The Hilltop Hoods. Thank you PBS, that's all I can say, thank you PBS and thank you JJJ. Indeed, I've found myself switching from Triple J to PBS with increasing frequency of late. Call it a a growing aversion to Australian hip hop and other similar brands of mediocrity. Similarly, the radio at work now very rarely sits on the JJJ dial. Unfortunate for the Js I guess, but they should have thought about that before they began to morph into some commercialised monstrosity. But I digress. My apologies. My disillusionment with Triple J is not the point of this post. 

The point of this post is to share exactly how amazing Justin Townes Earle is. Amazing talented, amazing and heart-breaking. And damn fine to look at too, in my opinion. If you ask me (and I know you do), this is what modern country should be. The right amount of twang, the right amount of badassery, of misery, of romance. Oh, boy. And. AND. Get this. What's completely torturous is that he's playing in St Kilda, tonight. TONIGHT. I could potentially make it there if I leave now. I COULD MAKE IT.

Unfortunately, I'm a little low as far as dosh is concerned. Parking fines, replacement Doc Martens (RIP), tickets to various things (before I realised how amazing JTE is). It all contributes to a poor Reb, and a sad one at that. So I'll just sit here and spend my time on Youtube. I'll make the clips full-screen and pretend I'm listening to them live.

Do yourself a favour and watch these: