Townes Van Zandt

Today we are not on a strictly blues path, but rather following the life of a Texas based singer songwriter John Townes Van Zandt. Townes VZ, while heavily influenced by bluesman Lightnin Hopkins as a young man, is probably best categorized in the ‘folk’ or ‘Americana’ tradition. Despite this categorization, there is a lot of blues in his discography and we will try to focus on this today.

One commentator has said “Whether he was singing a quiet, introspective country-folk song or a driving, hungry blues, Van Zandt's lyrics and melodies were filled with the kind of haunting truth and beauty that you knew instinctively. The magic of his songs is that they never leave you alone.”

Steve Earle once said of him “Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."

Song from his third self titled album, which the liner notes describe as “Funk – not in the traditional sense, but back country, dead of night Texas funk

1. Lungs – 1970 – TVZ – Tk 6 – 2.17

Despite a distinctive but pleasant voice, as a singer Van Zandt never had anything resembling a hit in his nearly 30-year recording career — he had a hard enough time simply keeping his records in print, in part because his alcoholism and erratic personal behavior could make him quite difficult to deal with. Nonetheless, he was widely respected and admired as one of the greatest country and folk artists of his generation.

The long list of singers who've covered his songs includes Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris.

Born in 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas to an oil-wealthy aristocratic Texas family, he spent his youth in Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois. Van Zandt also spent a couple years in a military academy and a bit more time in college in Colorado before dropping out to become a folksinger.

Van Zandt was supposedly being groomed for the Texas governorship, but he dropped out of college in the 1960s after being inspired by singer-songwriters and deciding to pursue a singing career. He was of extraordinary intelligence but was also diagnosed manic-depressive in his early twenties. He was treated with insulin shock therapy, which fried his brain and erased much of his long-term memory. His lack of memory and his mental condition contributed to both the passion and sense of isolation evident in his songwriting.

Van Zandt moved to Houston and got his first paying gigs on the folk music circuit there in the mid-'60s.

His first album was released in 1968, but in 2002 a long lost collection of 1966 demo tapes were found. These were Nashville recordings, and represent his first attempts of the 22 year old to “go national” – ie break away from the Texas folk circuit. The tapes were released on CD called ‘In The Beginning”

2. Black Widow Blues – 1966 – In The Beginning – Tk 1 – 2.33

During the 60’s he played clubs and he met singers such as Guy Clark (who became a lifelong friend and frequent road partner), Jerry Jeff Walker, and blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins, who had a large influence on Van Zandt's guitar playing in particular. VZ used to feature a lot of LHs work in his shows. He once said of the LH influence: “The first time I got really serious about playing the guitar was doing the blues - that will always be the biggest influence”

3. Hunger Child Blues – 1966 – In The Beginning – Tk 3 – 3.13

Another Texas songwriter, Mickey Newbury, saw Van Zandt in Houston one night and soon had him set up with a recording gig in Nashville (with Jack Clement producing). The sessions became Van Zandt's debut album, For the Sake of the Song, released in 1968 by Poppy Records.

4. Waitin Round To Die – 1968 – Drama Falls Disc 1 – Tk 4 – 2.23

The next five years were the most prolific of Van Zandt's career, as Poppy released five further albums, often featuring re recording songs that he had recorded on earlier albums. For example, the first track on his self titled third album, was the title track of his first album –

5. For the Sake of The Song – 1969 – TVZ – Tk 1 – 5.20 – play 3.15 then fade

Another track from 1969

6. Snake Mountain Blues – 1968 – Drama Falls Disc 1 – Tk 11 – 2.38

He released his 4th album in 1971 called Delta Mama Blues – the title track commemorates some two army friends who regularly got loaded on weekends on cough syrup, which they called Delta Mama

7. Delta Mama Blues – 1971 – Drama Falls – Disc 1 - Tk 16 – 3.57

He recorded two studio albums in 1972, which made a total of 6 in 5 yrs –

First called High Low and In Between. Gambling track called Mr Gold and Mr Mud.

8. Mr Gold and Mr Mud – 1972 – Drama Falls – Disc 2 – Tk 6 – 2.21

Second album from 1972, called The Late Great…(The name apparently came from a drug and alcohol session during the recording of the album) It featured the first recordings of two of his greatest songs- Pancho & Lefty and If I Needed You. This album has featured on many ‘best of’ lists. Track which became a number one country hit for Willie Nelson in 1983.

9. Pancho & Lefty – 1972 – The Late Great– Tk 8 – 3.34

For much of the 1970s, he lived a reclusive life in a cabin in Tennessee, with no indoor plumbing or phone, appearing only occasionally to play shows often to crowds of fewer than 50 people

In 1973 he recorded a double live album at the Old Quarter Club in Houston. This is a great album and the one against which all his other live albums are measured. The liner notes describe it as The Rosetta Stone of Texas music, and on it he covers tracks by Bo Diddley, and Lightnin Hopkins. Three tracks

10. Who Do You Love – 1973 – Live at Old Quarter – Disc 2 – Tk 8 – 3.44

11. White Freight Liner Blues – 1973 – Live at Old Quarter – Disc 1 – Tk 9 – 3.10

12. Loretta – 1973 – Live at Old Quarter – Disc 2 – Tk 4 – 2.26

Van Zandt moved to Nashville in 1976 at the urging of his new manager, John Lomax III.

He struggled with alcoholism throughout his adult life. At times he would be drunk on stage and forget the lyrics to his songs. Some critics believe his alcoholism inhibited his performances, whereas others believe it made his lyrical expression more genuine.

After 1978, Van Zandt didn't record again for nearly a decade, but he continued to tour.

In 1980 in Austin, Tx, he met Jeanene the woman who became his third wife and who would share the rest of his life. They had two children, and she tried to take over the business side of his life, but found it a trial. “He couldn’t handle fame and every time he got close to it, he would sabotage it”

He returned again to Nashville in the mid-'80s. In 1987, Van Zandt was back in business with his eighth studio album, At My Window, which came out on his new label, Sugar Hill.

By this time, Van Zandt's voice had dropped to a lower register, but the weathered, somewhat road-weary edge to it was as pure and expressive as ever. Two years later, Sugar Hill released Live & Obscure (recorded in a Nashville club in 1985), and two more live albums appeared on European labels in the early '90s.

In the early 1990s he also started work on what was intended to be a 60 song boxed set. Included in the recordings made at this time were a series of duets with the likes of Freddie Fender, Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris. The WN track in particular shows how his voice had changed

13. Marie – 1990s – Legend – Disc 1 – Tk 21 – 4.56

14. If I Needed You – 1990s – Legend – Disc 1 – Tk 23 – 3.19

He continued writing and performing at his own pace through the 1990s until his death on New Year’s Day of 1997 in Nashville, following hip surgery two days previous. He died with a flask of vodka in his hand and his daughter Katie Belle by his side. When he died, his daughter told her mother "Daddy had a fight with his heart. He was 52 years old.

Steve Earle paid his own homage to Van Zandt, describing him as the greatest songwriter who ever lived, and writing "Fort Worth Blues" as a memorial to the night of his death.

Townes used to say, "Man, I could have been a poet but this stupid music keeps coming with it."