Exploring Justin Townes Earle's Nashville

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Rolling Stone

Music, Music Interviews, Music Commentary

4.0 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Justin Townes Earle may have traveled the world as an Americana troubadour, but the story of the singer-songwriter’s life can be told in just a few square miles in his native Nashville. In this special episode of Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now, Jonathan Bernstein, author of the new authorized biography of Earle, What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome, gives us an intimate walking tour of Earle’s Nashville, from the park where he found solace to the dive bar where he honed his craft. We also talk about the legacy of Earle, who died in 2020, and why his songs will continue to play on. Country is Here…Nashville is Now. Check out our Hear Now playlist on Spotify, updated weekly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Jack one, two.
0:04.0	All right.
0:05.0	We're talking to you about the book and talking about Justin.
0:09.0	What's really interesting to me is how much of his story begins and tragically ends here at this bar at Springwater.
0:18.0	Justin, it's really Springwater, separate club and lounge.
0:22.1	Justin love calling it by its first name.
0:23.9	This is a place that is completely core to the artistry of Justin Earl and eventually of Justin Townsorl.
0:31.5	He spent all of his teenage years in here underage.
0:35.1	He started playing, I think, Sunday afternoon, five-hour blues
0:38.6	sets here and really kind of had to develop his whole repertoire. And he starts playing
0:42.8	with his band, The Swindlers. In here, they would hide whiskey in the rafters because I think
0:48.6	it was beer only at that time. And they're all under 21. They pull, you know, pull swigs of whiskey in between songs and stuff.
0:56.1	The shows were, I think, incredibly raucous, pretty hungry.
1:00.8	What you're hearing is my conversation I had with Jonathan Bernstein about Justin Towns-Earl.
1:06.6	I'm Joseph Hudak, senior music editor at Rolling Stone, and your host of the Nashville Now podcast.
1:12.5	We're doing today's episode just a little bit differently.
1:16.3	Our guest, Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone Senior Research Editor, has written a book.
1:21.4	It's titled What Do You Do When You're Lonesome?
1:24.3	And it's about the life of the visionary artist musician singer-songwriter
1:28.6	and Nashville icon Justin Towns Earl Jonathan stopped by the cabin and we also hit the streets
1:34.5	in Nashville to visit some of Justin's favorite and most important haunts.
1:41.8	Coming up next, my conversation with Jonathan Bernstein on The Life of Justin Towns Earl.
	...

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