When Justin Townes Earle played in St. Paul, Minn., last year, the son of Nashville outlaw Steve Earle made it abundantly clear he’s turning into one of his generation’s craftiest songwriters, and a mighty fine singer to boot.

Unfortunately, despite his rock-solid performance, a lot of people also spotted another, less enviable trait the 29-year-old tunesmith shares with his dad.

“Yeah, I was pretty well wasted on that whole tour,” Earle 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,” says Earle who performs Saturday night at the Magic Stick.

Earle had to postpone his 2010 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 wasing again. One song on the new record chronicles his fall from grace as it’s happening, “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” a slow shuffle with lyrics that could reflect that night at the Turf Club:

“Why do I try my luck? / I shouldn’t touch the stuff / But it shouldn’t make a difference / As long as I keep up appearances.”

Despite his awareness of the issue, Earle did not go on the wagon again until after he went to jail in September for public intoxication, battery and resisting arrest, purportedly following a dispute at a club over pay. Earle was advised not to discuss the matter in an interview last month, but he has hinted the arrest was a bum rap that he plans to dispute in court.

8 tonight

Magic Stick

4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit

Tickets $13 in advance

$15 at the door

Call (313) 833-9700

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 says. “I’m in the sunset of my 20s now, and physically, it just gets harder to detox.”

Named after his dad’s own troubled mentor, late Texas songwriter Townes Van Zandt, Earle got into drugs even before he entered his teens. He says he went from being a “scrawny, 80-pound kid that everybody picked on to being the crazy, wild-eyed kid that nobody (messed) with.”

In past interviews, he has bluntly laid a good chunk of blame for his troubled youth on his dad, who rarely came around after divorcing Justin’s mom, and who battled a heroin addiction that sent him to jail in 1994. However, Steve apparently hase through when it came to Justin’s addictions.

“He would call a lot, making sure I was going to meetings and whatnot,” Justin remembers. “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.”

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

“One thing I’ve learned is that it’s simply a lot easier to tour sober than it is not,” he said. “So, if anything, there’s extra incentive playing it straight.”

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