She’s a subversive storyteller, slipping in sideways with hard-to-swallow truths.
A new biography of Justin Townes Earle clarifies the singer-songwriter’s complex legacy
In the late 2000s, Justin Townes Earle emerged as one of the most magnetic singer-songwriters in roots music. He died in 2020 of a fentanyl overdose in Nashville, and now journalist Jonathan Bernstein has an engrossing biography, “What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome.”

