Justin Townes Earle could often be found playing at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, delivering a song in a confessional way even his father, Steve Earle, could not. He never attracted the crowds like the elder Earle, who would close out Saturdays at the San Francisco festival, but he developed his own loyal following over the years.

Skinny, with a bobbing Adam’s apple, Earle sang in a reedy tenor that was closer to Jimmie Rodgers than his father’s sound. On records, his voice could range from bright and sharp to up-all-night weary, and his ballads were loaded with raw despair. His musical styles ranged from country blues to folk, alt-country to alt-soul, with the tendency of changing his musical style every year the way he changed his look.

Earle played the free October festival in Golden Gate Park about every other year, and he had a recent string of five consecutive years while he was living on the northern Mendocino County coast and in Portland, Ore. His last performance was 2018, and he’ll be part of this year’s 20th anniversary pandemic-induced online festival, but only through archival recordings for what is bound to be a sad memorial.

Earle died at age 38 in Nashville where he had been living, friends and family announced Sunday, Aug. 23. No cause of death was given, but Nashville police said it was “likely from a probable drug overdose,” according tothe Tennessean.

“I would be surprised if it wasn’t his demons that got him,” Nancy Bechtle, sister of the late HSB founder and benefactor Warren Hellman, told The Chronicle. “Justin had his challenges in life, but he had an enormous amount of talent.”

Justin Townes Earle was born in Nashville on Jan. 4, 1982, to Steve and Carol Ann Hunter Earle. Middle-named for the late revered Texas troubadour Townes Van Zandt, his father’s mentor, Earle had two big names to live up to and he did his best.

He picked and strummed his guitar in a unique style similar to the traditional clawhammer style of playing a banjo. He eventually dropped out of high school to play guitar in his father’s band, and he made his debut at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2003 with his band the Swindlers when the festival was just 2 years old and held on four stages.

“He was wearing overalls and was barely able to grow facial hair,” recalled Sheri Sternberg, executive producer of the festival, “so I really feel that he grew up around this event.”

Some suspected that his father got him on the bill, but Sternberg told The Chronicle that wasn’t the case.

“Justin earned his place in our family,” she said. “His songwriting skills were on par with every artist we had.”

Earle could write an Americana story song as well as his father, who is the master of the style. His Civil War ballad “Lone Pine Hill” is as deep and chilling as Steve Earle’s “Ben McCulloch.”

For a long time, Earle lived in New York City, and he liked to tell stories of his bar adventures from HSB’s Rooster Stage. His local dive was frequented by UPS drivers and subway operators, “which makes for some interesting conversations,” he told a crowd one year before introducing a song he wrote for the subway crew, “Workin’ for the MTA,” from his 2010 album “Harlem River Blues.”

The title track earned song of the year honors at the Americana Music Awards in 2011 to go with his 2009 award as emerging artist of the year, and Earle seemed to be on his way. But something was always working against him.

Two detrimental causes he liked to mention from the stage were music critics and his father, whom he wouldn’t mention by name. One of his favorite lines was that it wasn’t until he left home that he learned that cocaine was not a vegetable to be served at the dinner table.

“I kind of struggle with the whole idea of him as a father, because it makes no sense to me,” he told The Chronicle in a 2012 interview before a show at the Great American Music Hall. “But I’m doing my best to be patient with this situation because I still just don’t think he realizes what he did to people.”

That year he released the album “Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now,” and expressed the ambition to reinvigorate Memphis soul the way his father had reinvigorated bluegrass.

At the time, Earle had started taking Suboxone as a substitute for methadone in his ongoing battle against heroin.

“I think I want the same things that Bruce Springsteen wanted,” he told The Chronicle. “I want to be a representation of mankind and I want to help people relate. It’s good for me when people relate to my songs because then I realize that I’m not alone and I’m not nearly as f—ed up as I thought I was.”

Earle later left New York and, after a stint in Mendocino, moved to Nashville, where he recorded for New West Records. His 2019 release, “Saint of Lost Causes,” had a more polished sound. The track “Appalachian Nightmare” sounds autobiographical with the lyrics “quit school at 15” and later “wish I’d never had a shot of dope.”

标题轨道驾驶蓝调歌曲他delivered in a moving solo performance on PBS 5 Studio in 2019. On Saturday, Aug. 22, that performance was posted to Earle’s Facebook page.

One day later came another post: “It is with tremendous sadness that we inform you of the passing of our son, husband, father and friend Justin. So many of you have relied on his music and lyrics over the years and we hope that his music will continue to guide you on your journeys.”

He is survived by his father, Steve Earle; his mother Carol Ann Earle; his wife, Jenn Marie and their daughter, Etta St. James; and brothers Ian and John Henry Earle.