Townes van Zandt is the MAN

Subject: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Matt_R
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 02:33 AM

That is all.

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Peace
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 02:42 AM

I agree. A giant talent and awesome performer.

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: burntstump
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 04:01 AM

I wish more folkies would listen to this great lost talent, a fantastic song writer sadly missed.

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: open mike
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 11:42 AM

I can't believe tha Tecumseh Valley is not in the digitrad.
and didn't he write "IF I needed you"? in fact i think i heard
that he woke up one morning and found that song by his bed
and didn't even remember writing it...he " Channelled " it!
look here for more

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Amos
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 11:55 AM

He also wrote, among others, Pancho and lefty, and Ain't Leaving Your Love, and yes he wrote if I Needed You and Many a Fair Lady. He is indeed a much lamented giant.

A

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Scoville
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 12:27 PM

Thank you for noticing

--Scoville (in Texas)

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 01:18 PM

I donno that there is any such beast as "THE" man...

but TvZ was great...

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 01:20 PM

oops...

But sure to lay hands to a copy of "Poet" the TvZ tribute CD...

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Mark Clark
Date: 08 Aug 04 - 03:35 PM

Yes, a great song writer. I never got to see or meet van Zandt but I was fortunate to get to play once in a while with a longtime friend of his, Neal Smelser. Sadly, Neal is also gone now.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: DonMeixner
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 12:35 AM

I'll Be There In the Morning.

Our Mother The Mountain

Quicksilver Dreams of Maria

Great stuff on every record .

Don

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 12:48 AM

Agreed....such a personal sound, so much his own...no mistaking one of his songs for anyone else's, ever

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Cluin
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 02:35 PM

"White Freightliner Blues" is also a great joiner-inner. TVZ 4ever.

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 02:45 PM

I caught a docu. on late-night TV last night about some very sad ugly white guys called "Viny", about LP collectors...

In the end credits, it was dedicated to the memory of TvZ and others...

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 07:41 PM

to live is to fly
both low and high
so shake the dust off of your wings
and the tears out of your eyes

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: harpgirl
Date: 09 Aug 04 - 08:02 PM

I'll say, Matty. I listen to Townes at night to go to sleep. There is almost always a Townes CD in my player. I adore TVZ. He was soooooo talented. I saw him once in Tallahassee.

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: open mike
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 12:10 PM

There is a thread about Pancho and Lefty
and it reminded me that i had posted
the website for Townes in this thread.
i will do so again.
http://www.townesvanzandt.com/

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 12:22 PM

Buddy Tabor brought Townes to Juneau, Alaska for a concert about two years before TVZ died. Although Van Zandt was already on a downward spiral, I think, he put on a very good show. I love his songs- and when Buddy sings 'Snowing on Raton' we all love the harmonies on the chorus. It was a peculiar moment to me two winters ago when the train I was on went over Raton Pass.

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: number 6
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 12:27 PM

TVZ is an artist certainly deserving the accolades here at the Mudcat. He passed on way too soon.

sIx

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: BanjoRay
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 12:28 PM

A friend of mine organized a concert in Doncaster starring TvZ some years ago. Six people turned up.

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 Nov 05 - 01:10 PM

Bad publicity happens everywhere, BanjoRay. When a populace is not familiar with an artist's work, it is up to the publicist to educate them. Juneau has 30,000 people but there was a sellout crowd.

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: GUEST,Josh Medsker
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 01:34 PM

Ebbie,

I am writing a poetry book about TVZ in Juneau (I'm from Alaska). If you see this message, would you email me? [e-mail]

Thank you!

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: MandolinPaul
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 02:40 PM

I love his songs, and I love how he sings them solo. However, the person who writes the backup arrangements for his albums should be taken out back and shot.

As my girlfriend likes to say to me, "Oh, you have an opinion about that too, eh?"

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: peteglasgow
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 03:38 PM

Steve Earle did an album of tvz songs and said 'Townes van Zandt is the greatest song writer ever and i'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table and say that!'

Subject: RE: Townes van Zandt is the MAN
From: DonMeixner
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 04:51 PM

I like his songs. Even the throwaways like Heavenly House Boat Blues have real craft in the lyrics. A great writer but perhaps not a great voice.   His chord structure was not complicated or unnecessary but it carried the lyric and the melody. Listen Our Mother The Mountain. The ascending and descending bass lines could carry the melody by themselves.

Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls reads like a medieval cautionary tale in present day English. At first it seems a murder ballad but in the end it isn't.

Let me tell you a story 'bout a girl I knew
Fairest skin with eyes of blue
I swear to the lord that I loved her true
It's a year now she's been gone

Tecumseh Valley follows this same path. It is as if Townes wrote an entire novella and told a complete story in a few short verses.

I would strongly endorse his music.

Don Meixner