The first archival release of new music since Justin Townes Earle‘s death in 2020 is coming later this summer. On August 9th, New West Records, Earle’s label for the last few years of his life, will be issuing All In: Unreleased and Rarities (The New West Years), a double-LP compilation featuring a mix of demos, live performances, unreleased covers, and one-off rarities. It also includes a 52-page book of photos and liner notes.
Earle’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” a song he frequently performed live and recorded during the sessions of his final studio album, 2019’s The Saint of Lost Causes, previews the compilation.
Most exciting to hardcore fans are the six home-demo recordings that begin the collection. Recorded in the lead-up to The Saint of Lost Causes, the previously unheard songs represent a completely different thematic direction for Earle’s final album and provide revelatory insight into his songwriting process near the end of his life.
“Justin wanted to be known for his writing,” Earle’s widow Jenn Marie Earle said in a statement. “He took his time, he poured his pain and heart into his writing, into his human experience. Justin left a mark on many thousands of people worldwide. We will forever be able to delve into and learn so much from what he created, how he held himself in this world, how he soared, and how he fell.”
Earle’s legacy has been memorialized all over the world in the four years since his death, between the 2021 tribute record his father, Steve Earle, released shortly after his son’s death, and the star-studded memorial show that Earle organized at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in 2022. But All In marks the first time the Justin Townes Earle estate will be releasing never-before-heard originals from the songwriter. All told, the compilation will include six previously unreleased songs and 12 previously unheard recordings.
All In also features a book with photos from Earle’s longtime photographer Joshua Black Wilkins and brief essays from Wilkins, Jenn Marie Earle, and Adam Bednarik, Earle’s producer, engineer, bassist, and studio collaborator. “I witnessed firsthand Justin’s ability to captivate an audience while performing onstage night after night and to capture a first take in the studio,” Bednarik said in a statement.
All In: Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years) tracklisting:
1. “Cold Comfort” (Unreleased demo for The Saint of Lost Causes)
2. “Already Gone” (Unreleased demo for The Saint of Lost Causes)
3. “I Know You” (Unreleased demo for The Saint of Lost Causes)
4. “Troubled Eyes” (Unreleased demo for The Saint of Lost Causes)
5. “Lonely Mornings” (Unreleased demo for The Saint of Lost Causes)
6. “All or Nothing” (Unreleased demo for The Saint of Lost Causes)
7. “If I Was the Devil” (Unreleased Demo for Kids in the Street)
8. “Champagne Corolla” (Live on Steve Earle’s Hardcore Troubadour Radio Show on SiriusXM)
9. “So Different Blues” (Live on Steve Earle’s Hardcore Troubadour Radio Show on SiriusXM)
10. “Dreams” (Fleetwood Mac cover/Unreleased bonus track from The Saint of Lost Causes)
11. “Rocket 88” (Jackie Brenston & Ike Turner cover/Unreleased bonus track from The Saint of Lost Causes)
12. “The Saint of Lost Causes” (Unreleased demo for The Saint of Lost Causes – a work in progress)
13. “Appalachian Nightmare” (Unreleased demo for The Saint of Lost Causes)
14. “Appalachian Nightmare” (Album version from The Saint of Lost Causes)
15. “Over Alameda” (Unreleased Demo for The Saint of Lost Causes)
16. “Over Alameda” (Album version from The Saint of Lost Causes)
17. “Glory Days” (From Dead Man’s Town: A Tribute to Born in the U.S.A.)
18. “Far From Me” (From Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine)
19. “Graceland” (Bonus track from Kids in the Street, limited 7-inch release)