All the latest roots releases reviewed

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE The Good Life Bloodshot ***

Justin Townes Earle is son of the legendary Steve Earle and comes with the added monkey of being named after the late Texan legend Townes Van Zandt. Justin also followed in his father's footsteps by developing some bad habits, which resulted in him being fired from Steve's band. Now cleaned up, this is the younger Earle's first proper studio album - and very impressive it is, too. There are rough edges, not least Earle's singing on some tracks, but there is rough beauty, too, on songs such as Turn Out My Lights, Who Am I to Sayand Far Away in Another Town. Indeed, it's on the slower, more reflective material that the shadow of his father falls heaviest. But Earle's loose-fitting Texan honky tonk ballads, such as Lonesome and You, spotlight a man who deserves a chance in his own right. www.bloodshotrecords.com  JOE BREEN

Download tracks: Turn Out My Lights, Lonesome and You

TIM O'BRIEN Chameleon Proper American Recordings***

He's so damn talented that he can churn out songs about phones, chameleons, fractured families and even songs about songs at a rate that would have any self-respecting musician chasing respite in rehab. Tim O'Brien writes, sings and plays as if he's in his own front room - except he's playing to audiences that loop from Nashville to Nantucket (with the odd detour round these parts, of course). If only he weren't so damn perky, though: Chameleonshimmies with the renaissance talents of a musician hitting full throttle, but it's the down- home, stripped-bare arrangements that linger. Crooked Roadglistens with the raw energy of fiddle and voice, and is devoid of that smartest-boy-in-the-class tone that occasionally bedevils what is by any standards a fine, if somewhat egocentric, collection. www.timobrien.net JOE BREEN

Download tracks: Nothing to Say, The Garden