Sammy Brue is set to play The State Room on Saturday, January 31 in celebration of The Journals, his Bloodshot Records debut album. Daniel Young and M. Horton Smith support. Doors are at 7 p.m.
Over the past few years, local troubadour Sammy Brue has combed through the extensive journals the late Justin Townes Earle left behind, both archiving his words and creating an album. A gift from Earle’s wife, the writing included unfinished songs Brue has set to music, paying homage to his longtime musical hero.
The self-described “punk country record” absolutely consumed him, and in the best way possible. By the time the Ogdenite had inked a deal with Bloodshot to release his record — notably the same label Earle called home for four albums and an EP — they felt familiar. Comfortable. Brue had played the new songs so much, he’d committed them to memory.
“They’ve changed a bit, and I’ve changed, too. I’ve noticed even my voice has gotten deeper,” Brue says by telephone. “When I listen back to what we recorded, it feels like I’m a completely new person now.”
The experience evolved his approach to music. He realized that most great musicians don’t write a song and accept a first, second, or seventh version: they just keep writing until it can’t get any better. It made him want to do the same, to add patience to his creative process.
Brue shares he once heard an interview with Paul Simon where Simon said he buys big yellow legal pads of paper, starts writing a song on page one, then writes for as many pages as he needs to tighten the song toward perfection. Earle had a similar approach. In Earle’s journals, one song would sometimes be 25 pages long. According to Brue, “Saint of Lost Causes” was Earle’s longest, with nearly 50 pages of writing and rewriting.
That drive toward better-crafted storytelling extends to being able to play the songs as well as he possibly can, too.
“As a folk artist, I should be able to play my songs whether I’m high, drunk, nervous, or confident, and well before they’re even recorded,” Brue says. “That seems like the new formula for me.”
While much of Saturday’s performance will feature Brue and the songs he’s created using Justin’s journals, he’ll have a few longtime friends along to jam, including Ogden’s The Proper Way, a group that’s supported him since he was just 11 years old.
Shane Osguthorpe, who both sings and plays piano in that band (as well as a string of other instruments), saw Brue play early on and immediately began inviting him along to play shows all over the city. The two became fast friends.
“It’s been fascinating to watch this decade-long arc of a true Americana prodigy,” Osguthorpe says.
When Brue performs, he does so with a lot of enthusiasm and joy attached. That was clearly on display when he put on his Justin Townes Earle tribute show last February. It’s what gave the show its energy. It allowed it some extra wings.
“This whole lineage is soaked in tragedy. From Justin and Steve to Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley and Guy Clark, and all the way up to Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and Robert Johnson … their songs came from that area of pain and observation,” Brue says. “I’m trying to have the same effect [they had] without being in so much pain.”
It’s going to be something else, but don’t take my word for it. Grab your tickets while you can.
More from Dainon Moody: INTERVIEW: Whitey Morgan on Evolving Past Outlaw Country, Preference to Record in Texas and Saying ‘No’ to Record Labels
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