This is often the case with the wannabe sons of famous fathers. Blessed with infinite access and negligible talent, they seem to exist solely to prove that even the greatest of artists have a blind-spot roughly the size and shape of a snot-nosed brat. So I wasn’t expecting much when my wife dragged a copy of Justin Towne Earle’s second CD, The Good Life, over our threshold. Truth be told, I don’t really like Steve Earle all that much — the prospect of a younger, suckier version, therefore, was not a pleasant one.

But who’d a thunk: The Good Life is great, sporting a clean, dexterous country sound, an easy stylistic reach, and clever, self-deprecating humor. The elder Earle — perpetually mired in 70s bloat and his own ego — has never been able to achieve such grace.

On his third album, Midnight at the Movies, Townes Earle proves his earlier success was no fluke. “Poor Fool” is smooth, swinging honky-tonk done so effortlessly you wonder why nobody else on earth seems able to write songs like this anymore; “They Killed John Henry” is a lovely reworking of the folk song, which blends Mississippi John Hurt guitar picking and bluegrass backing as if country and blues never went their separate ways eighty years ago. And the band’s laid-back, shoulder-shrugging reworking of “Can’t Hardly Wait” darn near redeems Paul Westerberg — maybe his solo career wasn’t so, so bad, you think; it was just that he somehow forgot that he was supposed to be a country singer.

The best moment on the album, though, is Earle’s original “Mama’s Eyes.” “I am my father’s son,” Earle begins, and over a contemplative backing he sings about his relationship with his dad, who he resents and loves and is too much alike to escape. But then, more than halfway through the song, we move from a general portrait of the relationship to a specific moment — Townes Earle staring at himself, awake at 3 a.m., catching sight of himself in the mirror. And what he realizes is, he looks, not like his dad, but like his mom. “I’ve got my mama’s eyes/ her long thin frame and her smile/ and I still see wrong from right/ ’cause I’ve got my mama’s eyes.” How can you both love your father and not be defined by him? The answer is unexpected and obvious: you can remember that you’re your mother’s boy, too. The song goes out on a duet with a female harmony vocalist, and it’s as if Earle is singing to and with his own mom. In doing so, he sounds both vulnerable and freed— like making his own music, and not his dad’s, is as natural as his mother’s smile.

Recommended Tracks: "Mama's Eyes," "They Killed John Henry"

-Noah Berlatsky