Is the child the father to the man? If so, then Justin Townes Earle offers the anecdotal evidence. No longer the drug-prone insurgent of his youthful days, the younger Earle seems far less inclined to shake things up than his cantankerous old man, especially given the traditional trappings that he embraces on Single Mothers. Bluesy melodies and swelling steel guitars buttress many of these tracks, making them sound somewhat tame compared to earlier efforts. Nevertheless, it is not a letdown. “Worried ‘Bout the Weather,” “White Gardenias,” “My Baby Drives” and “Today and a Lonely Night” rank among the best tunes he’s ever written, and if the album as a whole sounds like a set of standards, then give credit to his confidence. Despite its relative brevity (it clocks in at less than a half hour) and mostly downcast mood (the sole exception being the upbeat closer “Burning Pictures”), it easily ranks among the best works of Earle’s still-burgeoning career.