Steve Earle & The Dukes returned on Friday with “Champagne Corolla”, the second single off the group’s upcoming tribute to Justin Townes Earle, J.T. Led by Justin’s outlaw country father Steve Earle, J.T. is due out on January 4th, which would have been Justin’s 39th birthday.
This latest release comes a week after an announcement from Justin’s family stating that the singer-songwriter died of an accidental overdose. Steve Earle himself struggled with drug and alcohol addiction in the public light for many years, even going so far as to play a loose caricature of himself in HBO‘s The Wire as a “redneck recovering addict” as he once described the role.
This tongue-in-cheek tribute to a Toyota sedan comes from the younger Earle’s penultimate album, 2017’s Kids In The Street. For their part, the elder Earle and his Dukes give the song a rollicking, honky-tonk rock n’ roll feel. Indicative of the recent blues records Earle and the Dukes put out these past few years—including 2017’s So You Wanna Be An Outlaw or that album’s predecessor, Terraplane—the song carries the familiar, confidant swagger of the Hells Angels Santa Claus that is Steve Earle.
Listen to Steve Earle & The Dukes’ cover of “Champagne Corolla” by Justin Townes Earle. J.T. is available for pre-order here ahead of its January 4th release. All proceeds of the album will be donated to a trust for Justin’s daughter, Etta St. James Earle.
Steve Earle & The Dukes – “Champagne Corolla” (Justin Townes Earle)
[Video: Steve Earle]
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