When our fabulous friend and fellow songwriter Joe Droukas died just after Christmas 2012, we lost a natural treasure, a magical soul who brought us such pleasure and left us a hole we only can fill by making the promise to keep our thoughts honest and hold our hearts true. 

That’s a lyric for a song I wrote with the mighty Justin Jaymes. I’d heard about him for years but we didn’t meet until we both participated in the celebration of Joe’s life. When I heard Justin sing and play, I felt the earth move and asked if he’d want to collaborate sometime. Fortunately, he said yes, and we’ve created a few dozen songs in the years sense. Justin’s range is as big as his heart. When he wails on that acoustic, traffic stops. And when he sings, forget about it. Throw in his plaintive harp and infectious melodies and you get the best parting gift anybody ever had; thanks, Joe, for putting us together.

My in-house editor extraordinaire Kerrin cut our video of “You Are Loved.” It would be harder to get people not to than to dance to it and it’s about as far removed from, say, “Home Of The Brave” as you can get or “Forgive” or “Charity,” all Thompson|Jaymes songs, but they’re all dances really. For four decades, Justin’s been the wandering minstrel of New England and points south, but I have a feeling that that trade route’s about to get a whole lot wider; he’s going places.

To contact Ernest and Justin, click here.