Live Review: Justin Townes Earle, Lindi Ortega, Marlon Williams

27 October 2014 | 9:33 am | Steve Bell

Justin Townes Earle charmed the pants off the audience in Brisbane.

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Kiwi troubadour Marlon Williams has been a regular visitor to Brisbane of late, but this time he’s conscripted some local help in the form of The Gin Club’s Ben Salter (bass) and Gus Agars (drums), which fills out his singer-songwriter sound nicely.

His deep, sonorous voice remains Williams’ main asset but he writes a mean tune as well, early Bob Carpenter cover Silent Passage giving way to a stream of classy originals such as The State Hospital, That’s All I Can Remember and Trouble I’m In which combine to compromise an opening set of rare depth and beauty.

Next up black-clad Canada-via-Nashville country chanteuse Lindi Ortega takes the stage with her guitar-wielding sidekick Champagne James Robertson, and they burst into the sprightly Waiting For My Luck To Change, before Ortega grabs an axe as well and they move onto Hard As This.

Her smoky voice is sultry and expressive and she simply oozes both personality and sincerity, the duo offering a voluptuous rendition of Man In Black staple Ring Of Fire before moving back amidst Ortega’s own repertoire with When All The Stars Align and the yearningly gorgeous Heaven Has No Vacancy. The pair close a classy and endearing set with the upbeat The Day You Die, a winning amalgam of sass and sentiment.

The ornate room isn’t quite full but nonetheless a large mid-week crowd has assembled to see rising prince of Americana Justin Townes Earle go through his paces, the lanky traveller wandering onto stage with his guitar to little fanfare and opening in solo mode with the perennial They Killed John Henry and the plaintive Learning To Cry.

Earle has been steadily building his profile here with repeated visits but this is the first tour where he’s been able to bring his own band, and he’s soon introducing his accomplished sidemen – Paul Niehaus (Lambchop, Calexico) on guitar plus the rhythm section from completely undervalued Texan outfit Centro-Matic, Matt Pence (drums) and Mark Hedman (bass) – who bring an easy fluidity and cohesion to proceedings. Earle only dropped his most recent album, Single Mothers, a few months back, but he’s about to release a companion piece named Absent Fathers, so we’re treated to the easy swing of a spanking new track Call Ya Mamma, before we re-enter more familiar territory with the languid Ain’t Waitin’ and then dart back for another untested track titled When The One You Love Loses Faith. Earle’s songwriting is progressing in leaps and bounds, and while his stage show may have lost the twitchy appeal of his early solo tours in favour of a more streamlined band sound it’s no less compelling – the debonair title-track from Single Mothers segues into the impossibly moving Mamma’s Eyes with complete panache, the latter track finding Niehaus seated at his pedal steel and introducing that saddest of country sounds into the equation. Earle launches into an offbeat diatribe about how Hank Williams would shoot today’s crop of country stars if they had the misfortune to cross paths – his speech randomly incorporating mentions of Slipknot and Insane Clown Posse – but soon we’re back into the swing of things, the jaunty If You Ain’t Glad I’m Leaving sounding brilliant with full band treatment before giving way to the gorgeous Someday I’ll Be Forgiven For This. He just keeps reeling off classic song after classic song – Worried About The Weather, Memphis In The Rain, My Baby Drives, Nothing’s Going To Change The Way You Feel About Me Now, Burning Pictures, White Gardenias, Down On The Lower East Side, Wanna Be A Stranger and Time Shows Fools all getting an airing – and whilst the tempo rarely shifts enough to rouse the heartbeat it’s all requisitely beautiful. He finishes the set proper with Today And A Lonely Night but an encore is a given, and before too long the full contingent return and throw in Christchurch Woman and Harlem River Blues before disappearing into the darkness at side of stage.

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Earle’s easy manner and casual rapport with his fans tend to mask the escalating genius of this wonderful songwriter and performer – we’re just so lucky that he’s taken a shine to this part of the world, and you can rest easy in the knowledge that he’ll back charming our pants off before you know it.