i enjoy both,...guy clark is playin at poor david's pub in dallas on march 4th,..if youre in the area you should check it out

yes to richard thompson too,....i even like reckless kelly's version of vincent

Townes Van Zandt is the country master in my mind. For The Sake of the Song is amazing, in fact, his whole self-titled album is one of the best outings by a singer-songwriter I've ever heard.

Also, listen to his cover of Dead Flowers by The Rolling Stones. Much better than the original. You may recognize it from The Big Lebowski.

I've been listening to Townes since I was a kid way back in the 80s. My personal feeling is that Townes was an American Leonard Cohen. Van Zandt belonged in that rarified class of songwriters with an enduring and epic body of work. Bob Dylan casts a long shadow upon everyone else. But Townes was the equal of Cohen, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Lennon/McCartney, Ray Davies, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, Neil Young, Smokey Robinson, Tom Waits, John Hiatt, Paul Simon, John Prine, and Carol King all of whom among the best of their generation.

I wrote a commentary in my MB journal on Townes' music: Gavin B. on Townes Van Zant's music

Townes' music didn't have an immediate recognition factor because Townes never attained ( and he didn't want to attain) the status of a high profile celebrity. Townes led a hermetic existence in a ramshackle cabin in rural Texas and touring outside of Texas was an ordeal for him. Townes was the disinherited son of a wealthy Texas family and Van Zandt county in Texas is named for one of Townes' socially prominent ancestors. Townes' unexpected death at the age of 52 in 1997 has been attributed to the cumulative effect of alcohol and drug consumption.

In the video below, Townes singing his best known song Pancho & Lefty. The video was filmed in 1988 at a Holiday Inn in Houston that was arranged when high rolling fan offered Townes enough money for a private concert.

Townes van Zandt was one of the hardest drug takers in music history, in my eyes:

"Generally shy and reserved, Van Zandt struggled with heroin addiction and alcoholism throughout his adult life. At times he would become drunk on stage and forget the lyrics to his songs. At one point, his heroin habit was so intense that he offered Kevin Eggers the publishing rights to all of the songs on each of his first four albums for $20. At various points, Van Zandt's friends saw him shoot up not just heroin, but also cocaine, vodka, as well as a mixture of rum and Coke. On at least one occasion, he shot up heroin in the presence of his son J.T., who was only eight years old at the time.

As a result of Van Zandt's constant drinking, Harold Eggers, Kevin's brother, was hired on as his tour manager and 24-hour caretaker in 1976, a partnership that would last for the rest of the singer's life. Although the musician was many years older than he was, Eggers would later say that Van Zandt was his "first child."

Van Zandt's battle with addiction led him to be admitted to rehab almost a dozen times throughout the 1970s and 1980s.Medical records from his time in recovery centers show that he believed his drinking had become a problem around 1973, and by 1982 he was drinking at least a pint of vodka daily. Doctors notes reported: "He admits to hearing voices, mostly musical voices," and "Affect is blunted and mood is sad. Judgment and insight is impaired."At various points in his life, he was prescribed to take the antidepressants Zoloft and lithium. His final and longest period of sobriety during his adult life was a period of about a year in 1989 and 1990."

That last sentence says it all.

I haven't listened to Townes but I like Steve Earle's cover album Townes.

Love TVZ. :bowdown:

If you haven't already, check out the TVZ documentary that came out a few years ago.

You can watch it online for free on Hulu. It's called Be Here To Love Me.

Great artist. I don't listen to him nearly enough, but absolute classic.

Same here.

Our Mother the Mountain is where it's at. Fantastic album.

Just got done listening to that album. After reading this thread got me in the mood to listen to him a bit. Have the self titled playing right now.

Self-titled is probably his finest outing, though everything from that to The Late Great Townes Van Zandt is very good.