A few lines and a guitar lick are all Justin Townes Earle needs on “Ain’t Got No Money,” the shifty roots rocker that will be featured on his just-announced LP The Saint of Lost Causes.
Something of a return to the familiar for Earle, The Saint of Lost Causes sees him reunited with longtime producer Adam Bednarik in Nashville after venturing out to Omaha, Nebraska, to record 2017’s Kids in the Streets with Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes. “Ain’t Got No Money” is lean and wiry, built around a locked-in riff that calls to mind James McMurtry’s “Choctaw Bingo” and never loses step with Earle’s bitten-off, occasionally slurred vocal about trying to find the cash to make it to New Orleans. “Give me some money or just leave me alone,” he sings in the refrain, over a panting harmonica that wails through the song’s middle fifth.
Due to be the second of 12 songs on The Saint of Lost Causes‘ running order, “Ain’t Got No Money” and its pared-down arrangement suggests a different direction from the fleshed-out, full-band approach of Kids in the Street, which centered around more personal tales inspired by Music City, his hometown. Earle and Bednarik cut the album at Sound Emporium in Nashville.
From the new album ‘The Saint Of Lost Causes,’ available May 24th
The Fat Angel Sings 