Did We Fly

 

This recent all-acoustic collection of live Townes tracks is worth it for a gorgeous rendition of his immortal Waitin' Round To Die alone. He can't remember for the life of him where the posse drags him back to though and flufs the Muskogee line, which is actually kinda funny. Here goes.

Townes Van Zandt - Waitin' Round To Die (live)

Is there a sadder song in his oeuvre? Since you ask, oh yes there is... And it's quite possibly the saddest song ever in my book, full stop. The story of Caroline, daughter of a miner. "Seemed to me that sunshine walked beside her..." Take it away, maestro.

Townes Van Zandt - Tecumseh Valley (live)

Take Them Home

Released last week on what would have been the late great's 75th birthday, these recordings from a '73 session in Atlanta prove a treasure trove for Townes fans. Not bootlegged before as far as I know, Sky Blue provides a mix of known classics, rare covers and even two fine unknown originals, with the unnecessary productional flourishes so often found on his regular studio albums mercifully absent. Good times indeed, my amigos da musica.

Townes Van Zandt - All I Need

Treat You Kind

This one just in from a decent but not really remarkable new Townes tribute. Cue fellow Texas legend Terry Allen, still very much alive and kicking, who tries to steal away your mind.

Terry Allen - White Freightliner Blues

Très Belle

A French chansonnier, doing it the Americana way? Check out Baptiste W. Hamon from Paris. The first track is an intriguing duet with the one and only Bonnie Prince Billy, while the second one movingly pays homage to his all-time idol. Got good taste, this mac.

Baptiste W. Hamon - Comme La Vie Est Belle
Baptiste W. Hamon - Van Zandt

To Them Hills And Gone

A heartbreaking trio of covers, performed live by the mighty duo of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Enjoy, my amigos da musica.

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Snowing On Raton (live Berkeley '96)
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - I'll Go On Downtown (live Berkeley '96)
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Albequerque (live Hickory '97)

Bourbon's Fine

Here's the Late Great, reflecting on the subject of temptation. "I just think on her instead..." Just plain beautiful.

Townes Van Zandt - Greensboro Woman

Free And Clean

I never minded the mariachi elements on Pancho & Lefty, but to hear that immortal epic without any bells and whistles sure is a treat. Which goes for the majority of tracks on Sunshine Boy actually. One of the reissues of the year for sure.

Townes Van Zandt - Pancho & Lefty (alt. mix)

Steal Away My Mind

Been awhile since we featured the late great in these pages, so here goes. Live in a small band setting this time, with Danny 'Ruester' Rowland on guitar and Owen Cody on fiddle. As Townes had broken his arm, he couldn't play, just sing. Recorded back in '78 in Mariah's Coffeehouse, East Lansing, Michigan. Packet of Marlboro lights not included.

Townes Van Zandt - Buckskin Stallion Blues
Townes Van Zandt - White Freightliner Blues

Ladies First

This one goes out to all you lovely ladies out there.
Always wanted to say that.

Kevin Coyne - Eastbourne Ladies

Rock City - Lovely Lady

Kevin Ayers - The Lady Rachel
Gene Clark - Lady Of The North
Judee Sill - Lady-O
Townes Van Zandt - Many A Fine Lady

Leon Russell - Delta Lady
Billie Holiday - Lady Sings The Blues

Stan Kenton - My Lady

Throbbing Gristle - Hamburger Lady

Bound To Ramble

"I'm going out on the highway, listen to them big trucks whine..." Flatlander Jimmie Dale Gilmore sure knew how to do Townes right.

Jimmie Dale Gilmore - White Freight Liner Blues

Something Shines

"So tell my baby I said so long, tell my mother I did no wrong, tell my brother to watch his own, and tell my friends to mourn me none..." An epitaph to die for. From the ideal beginners guide to the late great: Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas.

Townes Van Zandt - Rex's Blues (live '73)

Big Rock

"She tells me she comes from my mother the mountain, her skin fits her tightly, and her lips do not lie..." Presenting a folkish and countryish six pack for musical climbers. Original big rock candy mountain artwork by the incomparable Joni.

Townes Van Zandt - Our Mother The Mountain

Sunforest - Magician In The Mountain

Harry McClintock - The Big Rock Candy Mountain

The Flatlanders - Keeper Of The Mountain

Linda Perhacs - Paper Mountain Man

Flatt & Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Voodoo Working?

"You wanna hear my long snake moan..." A hissing, slithering six pack for your listening pleasure. "Is my voodoo working?" Buy my snake oil please.

PJ Harvey - Long Snake Moan MP3

Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Black Snake Moan II MP3

Townes Van Zandt - Snake Song MP3

The Walkabouts - Snake Mountain Blues MP3

Little Feat - Snakes On Everything MP3

R.L. Burnside - Snake Drive MP3

If The Rain Comes...

Winter´s coming... and me no like. After more than five months of sunshine, wearing shorts and flipflops at all times, it´s kinda hard to adjust. Today was the first day I had to put on my trusted leather jacket, while inside the heater had to be turned on again. Last Saturday, it proved still possible to enjoy lunch outside, in shirtsleeves while sporting sunglasses, but now the weather has definitely turned. Living in a mediterranean climate, it would be hard to maintain that it´s colder than a witch´s tit, or even a well digger´s ass out there, but it sure feels that way to me at the moment. Oh well, at least the mozzies are a goner.

Another drop in temperature is expected, and the weatherman says it´s going to pour tomorrow. Which gives me an excellent opportunity to provide you with a musical ten pack about the rain. I´ve left out the most obvious ones, so no Beatles (you´ll get a fun cover version though), Temptations or Ann Peebles this time around. Now where´s that umbrella again...

Meat Puppets - Look At The Rain MP3

Keith Hudson - In The Rain MP3

Beatle Hans & The Paisley Perverts - Rain MP3

The Velvet Underground - Hey Mr. Rain MP3

The Pogues - Rain Street MP3

Lonnie Johnson - Pouring Down Rain MP3

Townes Van Zandt - None But The Rain MP3

Prince Far I - Rain A Fall MP3

The Rising Storm - The Rain Falls Down MP3

Blacktop - I Think It´s Going To Rain MP3

Townes Live At The Jester And At Carnegie Hall

About time for some Townes Van Zandt here again, the late great singer/songwriter in whose honour this blog was named. I guess most of you know and own his classic studio albums by now, or even the great live covers collection Road Songs (if not, see my earlier post here). But there are two more excellent live albums by the Texan rambler & gambler you should know about, both recorded pretty early on in his career.

First up is Live At The Jester Lounge - Houston, Texas 1966, a registration that didn´t see the light of day until nearly forty years later. By then Townes didn´t have any albums out yet and was still busy learning his trade in small clubs. And The Jester must have been tiny, as the picture on the album sleeve shows Townes performing nearly on top of a stack of podium speakers, which are in turn balanced on a few cases of that weak stuff most Americans call beer. Still with short hair, Townes plays a nice mix of covers (Hello Central by his idol and pal Lightnin´ Hopkins for instance) and originals (the beautiful Black Crow Blues). "Well it´s a funny old world, you can´t walk it alone..." A rough diamond.

Townes Van Zandt - Hello Central (live ´66) MP3

Townes Van Zandt - Black Crow Blues (live ´66) MP3

Three years later we find Townes - he´s got two albums under his belt and wears his hair long - performing at a Poppy Records label bash in Carnegie Hall of all places. This crystal clear recording - A Gentle Evening With Townes Van Zandt - also came out decades after the fact, and it´s a stunner. Sandwiched in between a rock band and a comedian, Townes must have felt somewhat out of place in these plush New York surroundings, but he´s in great form nevertheless. All songs minus one are originals now, and it´s a joy to hear that voice so youthful, not yet scarred by a thirsty life on the road. Was he listening to a lot of Dylan when he wrote She Came And She Touched Me? You bet. An essential document.

Townes Van Zandt - Second Lover´s Song (live ´69) MP3

Townes Van Zandt - She Came And She Touched Me (live ´69) MP3

On the Townes bio

If you´re a Townes Van Zandt fan, do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of John Kruth´s recent biography To Live´s To Fly (now available in paperback from Da Capo Press). Subtitled The Ballad Of The Late Great Townes Van Zandt, it´s a long overdue look at the troubled singer-songwriter´s life and oeuvre. Kruth interviewed lots and lots of insiders along the way. Among them are Townes´ first and third wife, his kids, colleagues such as Guy Clarke, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Steve Earle and his longtime label boss Kevin Eggers, a huckster you really wished Townes had never met. Only makes you wonder if the Texas bard would have had more commercial succes with a bona fide manager or record label... 

It´s no surprise a Townes biography contains tons of anecdotes about his drinking, gambling, drifting and womanizing ways. We find him giving away his money to kids in Mexico and buying bums in back alleys a fifth of wodka. We see him drinking a bottle of codeine cough syrup - aka Delta Momma - ad fundum while still in the pharmacy where he bought the stuff, ceremoniously putting the empty bottle back on the counter. And there he is losing everything but his underpants in a crap game, walking away laughing. We also learn Townes came from a wealthy background and a rich southern heritage, and that his concerned parents had him institutionalized for a while (including electro shock therapy!) when he decided to give up a respectable career for the sake of the song. And we find him torn between his family on one side, his muse on the other and the road and the bottle somewhere inbetween. 

Reason enough to pick up a copy of To Live´s To Fly methinks. Kruth´s writing style can be a bit breathless at times, and as an interviewer he´s sometimes afraid to ask the really tough questions. No wonder if a drunken Guy Clark is playing with a knife when you´re interrogating him, but still... On the whole we have to thank him though for finally setting the record straight on one of the undisputed geniuses of American song.

The following tracks are from Delta Momma Blues (´71, reissued on the Charly label).

Townes Van Zandt - Where I Lead Me MP3

Townes Van Zandt - Brand New Companion MP3

Townes Van Zandt - Tower Song MP3

Townes live in Ljubljana

I´m currently reading To Live´s To Fly, John Kruth´s recent biography of Townes Van Zandt, the late great Texan singer/songwriter who gave this blog its name. A full review will appear here when I´ve finished the book, but I can tell you I´m not complaining thus far.

In the meantime I´m listening to a lot of Townes as a soundtrack while reading. And although Van Zandt´s got some excellent studio albums to his name, I find again and again that I like him best live, alone with his Gibson guitar. Sparse, naked, totally sad and enormously uplifting at the same time, telling corny jokes between songs every once in a while to lighten up the atmosphere a bit. How about this one: "What´s white and runs up your leg? Uncle Ben´s perverted rice."

Anyway, here are some classic Townes performances from an excellent soundboard recording which was made in the K4 Club in Ljubljana, Slovenia (of all places) on 24 November 1994, a few years before he died. "Days full of rain, sky´s comin' down again, I get so tired of the same old blues... same old song, baby it won't be long, ´till I be tyin' on my flyin' shoes..."

Townes Van Zandt - Two Girls (live ´94) MP3

Townes Van Zandt - Flyin´ Shoes (live ´94) MP3

Townes Van Zandt - A Song For You (live ´94) MP3 

Road songs

On the album Road Songs, Townes Van Zandt treats us to a generous package of live covers of songs he wished he´d written himself. "No such luck," the Texas bard proclaims in the liner notes, but that´s ok really. You can´t write ´em all, and there´s no doubt the late great Townes left an impressive oeuvre behind. This collection of songs he loved to play live contains some inspired music, recorded over a number of years in joints all over America, and it´s especially fun to compare his covers with the originals. 

The old traditional The Coo Coo Bird was made for a singer like Townes. Wonderful violin played by Owen Cody too. From the liner notes: "I thought this song came from Scotland. But there are no coo coo´s in Scotland. It comes from South Carolina where there´s plenty. I know a couple." Find Clarence Ashley´s version on Harry Smith´s Anthology Of American Folk Music box. Springsteen´s Racing In The Streets is a bit ramshackle, but lovingly done. Here´s Townes´ deadpan commentary: "This is one of the most beautiful songs I´ve ever heard. I listened to it 30 times in a row at Lomax´s house. We drove 300 miles the next day. I played it and somebody recorded it. That´s why I didn´t know it better. Bruce will understand." The original is on Darkness On The Edge Of Town, but I´ll let you hear an inspired live performance recorded in San Francisco on 15 December ´78 instead. Wabash Cannonball by The Carter Family (from the Carter Family 1927-1934 box set) was one of the first songs Townes ever heard. And indeed, his love for the original shines through here. On Dylan´s Men Gave Names To All The Animals (from his first religious album Slow Train Coming) Townes says: "This song is so true and so much fun to sing, you´re bound to mix up the words a little." Great excuse... Van Zandt often sang songs by Hank Williams in concert. The sadness of You Win Again suits him very well. Hank´s original is available on the definitive 40 Greatest Hits compilation.

A final note: be sure to buy the German version of Road Songs, on Normal records, as that one´s got a couple of extra songs on it.

Townes Van Zandt - The Coo Coo MP3

Clarence Ashley - The Coo Coo Bird - MP3

Townes Van Zandt - Racing In The Streets MP3

Bruce Springsteen - Racing In The Streets (live 15-12-´78 San Francisco) MP3

Townes Van Zandt - Wabash Cannonball MP3

The Carter Family - Wabash Cannonball MP3

Townes Van Zandt - Man Gave Names To All The Animals MP3

Bob Dylan - Man Gave Names To All The Animals MP3

Townes Van Zandt - You Win Again MP3

Hank Williams - You Win Again MP3

Easter grab bag

Back to the grind with another version of Friday nite grab bag, after a few days in chilly Amsterdam with old friends, animated conversation, good food and way too much to drink. Here are some great songs that assaulted my eardrums during the past week. Guaranteed: no ditties about bunnies or eggs. Instead you´ll get two great duets by the daughter of Ol´ Blue Eyes, a singer/songwriter turning anarcho punk into campfire singalongs and a new Triffids reissue. Happy easter, folks.  

While in Amsterdam, I got a great Nancy Sinatra album I had previously overlooked somehow from a friend. Thanks again! It´s one of these albums you expect to hate at first glance because of a formula that hardly ever works: a more or less forgotten singer is surrounded by contemporary admirers. On Nancy Sinatra (Sanctuary records ´04) the plan succeeds for once though, mainly because the songs are so good. My current favorite track is the one Nancy recorded with Jon Spencer of Pussy Galore and Blues Explosion fame. Spencer plays the Lee Hazlewood-role with gusto. But even he can´t better these old Nancy & Lee duets, as a golden oldie like Sand (´67) clearly shows.
Nancy Sinatra - Ain´t No Easy Way MP3
Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Sand MP3

Ramones tributes are a specialty of mine. The ones I like most don´t only sound like the Ramones, but namecheck da Brudders as well. Johnny And Dee Dee by the Australian band The Eastern Dark (´85) is a good example. Watching a Ramones video makes the singer completely forget his girlfriend for a while. "They´re my heroes in life, and they´re there to take me high..." Rightly so. The Badtown Boys from California recorded their furious ode to Dee Dee in ´91. I saw them live once and they had the look down pat: leather jackets, sneakers and ripped jeans. One two three four... 

The Eastern Dark - Johnny And Dee Dee MP3

Badtown Boys - Dee Dee Took The Subway MP3

Singer/songwriter and comic artist Jeffrey Lewis achieved the impossible. He just recorded an acoustic Crass cover album, and guess what? It works. And it´s big fun, too. For the uninitiated: Crass was one of the most uncompromising punk collectives of the late seventies. They lived in a commune, preached anarchy and did everything themselves. Their music was anything but pretty, but New Yorker Lewis proves on the aptly titled 12 Crass Songs (Rough Trade) that it´s possible to turn their slogan-songs into folky campfire singalongs. Comparing the Crass originals (this one´s from their ´78 debut The Feeding Of The 5000) with the cover versions is priceless.

Jeffrey Lewis - Do They Owe Us A Living MP3

Crass - Do They Owe Us A living MP3

I´ve complimented Domino Records before in these pages on the excellent job it´s doing with the Triffids´ back catalogue. Their newly released Beautiful Waste And Other Songs (Mini Masterpieces 1983-1985) is another goodie. It compiles early singles, ep´s and mini albums like Field Of Glass and the great Raining Pleasure. St James Infirmary has been covered by many, but I´ve always had a weak spot for the Triffids´version.

The Triffids - St James Infirmary MP3

"If memory serves we´re still on a break." Art Brut´s ode to a first love always brings a smile to my face. "I haven´t seen her in 10 years, 9 months, 3 weeks, 6 hours, 13 minutes, 5 seconds..." I do believe the guy is still in love. With Emily Kane. Find it on Bang Bang Rock & Roll (Fierce Panda ´05).

Art Brut - Emily Kane MP3

Let´s close Easter proceedings with one of these heartbreakingly beautiful songs by the late great Townes Van Zandt. This blog isn´t called For the Sake Of The Song for nothing, if you know what I mean... "We´ve got the sky to talk about and the world to lie upon". To Live Is To Fly is from the mighty High, Low And Inbetween album (´72).

Townes Van Zandt - To Live Is To Fly MP3

The Late Great...

Townes Van Zandt that is. Singer/songwriter supreme, but outside of a small circle of ardent admirers he´s not exactly a household name, even though Steve Earle once proclaimed that ´Townes is the best songwriter in the world and I´ll stand on Bob Dylan´s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.´

Townes could be very funny, he could be heartbreakingly sad. He rambled, he drank and he always played his heart out. If you ever wondered if his life was really as tragic as you hear sometimes, here´s some good news. Finally there´s a biography of the man out: To Live´s To Fly by John Kruth. I intend to buy it as soon as the paperback version becomes available.

To keep you busy in the meantime here are two songs (both sad ones btw) by the maestro. Tecumseh Valley is off his second album My Mother The Mountain and it´s a song that literally gets me anytime. For The Sake Of The Song comes from from a great bootleg that was recorded on 9 November ´73 at the Whole Coffeehouse in Minneapolis.

Townes Van Zandt - Tecumseh Valley (live ´73) MP3

Townes Van Zandt - For The Sake Of The Song (live ´73) MP3