2.22.24

Storm coming

No way it’s gonna miss us now

Storm coming

Don’t be frightened by the sound

I woke up this morning missing Justin Townes Earle.

Can’t put my finger on why. I mean, I’m a fan, and I adore his music. But I don’t know why he was on my mind from the word “go,” nor do I understand why his absence felt so profound throughout my day. Near as I can figure, his music or his spirit was in my dreams last night, and the only thing remaining when I awoke was the sense of loss.

Earle passed away in August of 2020. Dead from an overdose of fentanyl-laced cocaine. Ugly way to go.

He struggled with drug addiction from the age of 12. Worked hard to get cleaned up. Relapsed again and again. Then it got him.

And that was it. No more music. No more of that Justin Townes Earle energy. No more chances to recover.

But we have the music he created for us.

Frightened By the Sound – from his last album, 2019’s too-appropriately titled Saint of Lost Causes – is my favorite song of his. It is equally eerie and comforting. It captures exactly what it feels like when a big ol’ storm (real or metaphorical) is bearing down and there isn’t a dammed thing you can do about it.

Except give comfort to those around you.

Growing up in Vermont, the big weather to worry about when I was a kid was the occasional flood and frequent winter nor’ easters.

In 1984, I watched the land around our trailer get hit hard by flooding. Our elderly neighbors came knocking on our door in the middle of the night. Their own trailer – set on lower ground than ours – was flooded. They’d made it to our place through knee-high water.

They’d also narrowly avoided being killed as the brook on their right became a raging torrent after a pond dam further upstream gave out. The water came raging and roaring down through the woods, and when it hit the culvert that ran under our road, it kept going, taking the culvert and the chunk of road above with it. They had just changed direction to come to our house a couple minutes before it happened.

“You’re safe now. It’s ok.”

I can still hear my dad saying those words over and over to the terrified older couple. And I hear those words echoed in the title of Earle’s song.

Whatever the storm is – thunder, tornado, blizzard, emotional – the sound can’t hurt you.

It’s just noise. Don’t let it wear you down. Focus on what the storm itself does. Be ready to fight, recover and move forward.

And be willing to give and/or receive comfort. Listen to those words.

Don’t be frightened by the sound.