Music: Songwriter Justin Townes Earle is sober and coming into his own

When Justin Townes Earle played the Turf Club last February, the son of Nashville outlaw Steve Earle made it clear he's turning into one of his generation's craftiest songwriters, and a mighty fine singer to boot. Unfortunately, a lot of people at the club that night also spotted another, less enviable trait the tunesmith shares with his dad.

"Yeah, I was pretty well wasted on that whole tour," Earle, 29, confesses. "When I drink, I drink everywhere I go. Fortunately for my career, though, I'm good at not letting my personal choices affect my professional obligations. I'm a little too good at it, is part of the problem."

Returning to town Monday to headline First Avenue, Earle had to postpone a fall tour behind his stirring new album, "Harlem River Blues," so he could undergo substance abuse treatment. It wasn't his first time entering rehab, and he seemed to know it was coming. In September, Indianapolis police arrested him for public intoxication, battery and resisting arrest, purportedly following a dispute at a club over pay. Earle has hinted the arrest was a bum rap that he plans to dispute in court.

Still, he doesn't deny that it did him some good hitting rock bottom. "The last time I went to rehab was in my early 20s," he said. "I'm in the sunset of my 20s now, and physically, it just gets harder to detox."

Earle got into drugs even before he entered his teens. In past interviews, he has bluntly laid a good chunk of blame for his troubled youth on his dad, who battled a heroin addiction that sent him to jail in 1994. However, Steve apparently has come through when it came to Justin's addictions.

"He would call a lot, making sure I was going to meetings and whatnot," Justin remembered. "It was his idea to send me to rehab the first time. He knew what I had to do. It's not like a kid thinks about sending himself to rehab."

"Harlem River Blues" certainly shows a learned songwriter at work. The disc's title track introduces a soulful mix of Southern gospel and acoustic country over lyrics about a man jumping to his death. The title track, Earle said, is about a friend whose suicide he foresaw -- "but I knew I couldn't stop him, and I knew he was at peace with doing it."

Upon returning to the road, Earle said he's not worried about falling into old habits.

"It's an everyday thing I deal with, not just something that surfaces when I hit the road," he said. "One thing I've learned is that it's simply a lot easier to tour sober than it is not. So, if anything, there's extra incentive playing it straight."