Photos Courtesy of Jesse Scaccia, Altdaily.com

The Naro Cinema in Norfolk is a late 30′s theater that usually plays indie films and movies with subtitles, but on Thursday night it was rocking some serious country tunes. The night opened up with local girl Gina Dalmas and her Cow Tippin’ Playboys who played to the crowd and warmed everyone up with some classic country songs. Most of their lyrics centered around alcohol and the general debauchery that ensues after consuming the former – an idea that the crowd ate right up.

The night then got good as the main event Justin Townes Earle took the stage. Although there was a rather lame introduction which limited Justin’s credits to being Steve Earle’s son and winning best dressed man by GQ magazine, Earle overcame with a vengeance. Justin apologized for his missing fiddle player, who was possibly being arrested at that moment and his bassist who was stuck in Chicago due to bad weather – we were stuck with just him and fortunately that was more than enough. Earle kicked things off with “Move Over Mama,” which is one of my personal favorites and a darn good way to start a show. Upbeat and fun this tune had the crowd eating out of his hand from the moment he crooned, “flat on your back with your legs open wide.”

Since The Naro is just a tiny little theater and Earle was putting on a one man show he never missed an opportunity to display his snarky humor or southern charm while tuning his guitar between songs. We heard about his 6’1″ hard knocks country mama, his tendency to be “a hard dog to keep under the porch,” a New Zealand romance, an ill fated move to NYC and his drug of choice. He turned songs that I barely noticed on an album, like “Ain’t glad I’m Leaving” into highlights and he turned album highlights like “Just Waitin” into absolute winners. Halfway through the show he leaned over the mic and announced that “the great Townes Van Zandt once said, no set is complete without a blues song” and then proceeded to bust out a more than impressive acoustic version of Lightnin’ Hopkin’s “Bad Gasoline.”

By the time he finished his set the crowd was on it’s feet wanting more and more they got. Justin came out for an encore that would satisfy even the most jaded of listeners, kicking it off with Springsteen’s “Racing in the Street” and capping it all off with The Replacements “Can’t Hardy Wait.” “Racing in the Street” was a clear highlight for me and even Bruce would have had to admit that he took a great song and did it justice. All in all there were more upbeat foot taping moments than you would have expected from a small acoustic show but plenty of the subtle heart breaking moments you wanted. From JTE’s goofy dance moves aided by his thin lanky frame, to his earnest sometimes gritty vocals, to his ridiculous guitar skills it was more than worth the ticket price and fairly clear that this guy is pretty talented.