justin townes earle and miss usa

I've been working on a short piece about Justin Townes Earle this evening.

He is the son of one of my favorite musicians, Steve Earle and is named for his papa's buddy, songwriter Townes Van Zandt.
I was listening to his new album "Yuma" as I was writing.
I was also watching the basketball games (RIP Butler) but was getting too distracted--of course, it is not hard to distract me from an assigned project, I've been know to spend hours looking at salt and pepper shakers on eBay.

Anyway back to getting sidetracked...instead of turning off the television I flipped the channel and landed on the Miss USA beauty...um, I mean scholarship pageant.

I was thinking about the irony of listening to the of the son of Steve Earle, who sings of social justice with one ear--
and listening to the five finalists in their interview session with the other.
One spoke of how cold it is in Minnesota (Miss Nevada) and another talking about how people don't deserve second chances (not sure who that was--the white noise started then).

Anyway, since I was writing about a Nashville based musician I decided that Miss Tennessee should win.
And she did.

Maybe I can have a new career as a pageant coach.
Or an oddsmaker in Vegas.

Click on the title to hear a Justin Earle song. I like him, his voice and songs are warmer and gentler than his papa.