CD Odyssey Disc 986: Townes Van Zandt

I’m back at work after a fun weekend hanging out in Vancouver for the weekend, celebrating my wedding anniversary with Sheila, buying shoes and clothes, meeting up with friends and having a few drinks along the way. For exciting details, check out my wife’s blog here.

Fun as it was, the last two weekends have had a lot of activity and I am worn down. Once I get through the next four days I’m doing something wholly relaxing for the weekend. Yes, it will include listening to music.

Disc 986 is…At My Window

Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1987

What’s up with the Cover? Townes hangs out in what looks like a very old country kitchen. Outside, a winter wonderland stretches away into the blue-lit distance.

Here’s a fun fact: Townes is wearing the same shirt the wears on the cover of the 1995 “Live at the Bluebird Café” album (reviewed back at Disc 231). I guess when Townes liked a shirt, he really liked a shirt.

How I Came To Know It: When I reviewed Townes’ concert album “Live at McCabe’s” there was a song (“Snowin’ On Raton”) I really liked, but didn’t have on any of my studio albums. A bit of sleuthing revealed it was from “At My Window”. Then it was simply a matter of waiting patiently for it to show up in the local record store. It took a while, but finally happened a couple of years ago.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 10 Townes Van Zandt albums. I had reserved space at #9 for “At My Window” but it totally exceeded my expectations and ended up in sixth, displacing three previous reviews in the process.

Ratings: 4 stars

After nine years without releasing any new material, you might feel wary about a new Townes Van Zandt album in 1987; I certainly did. However, “At My Window” proves that while Townes was no longer prolific, his talent was intact and just waiting to be tapped again.

Despite coming nearly a decade later, Van Zandt’s signature sound remains; gentle rolling melodies climb up and down in a way that is natural and easy. It almost feels like you’ve heard these songs a hundred times, but that is just Van Zandt’s talent for writing in a timeless style. These could be the songs of a 16^th century troubadour as easily as a 20^th century folk singer.

Van Zandt’s voice is starting to show signs of wear and tear. He’s only 43 years old here, but they have been 43 hard years, most of them filled with a lot of liquor and late nights. Fortunately, Van Zandt has never been about scintillating vocals so the loss is small. Like Leonard Cohen, he’s added a bit more gravel and dust as he’s aged, but it just makes the songs seem worn in and comfortable.

The production on the album is sparse and restrained and could almost fit into Townes’ mid-seventies period, it if weren’t for the occasional very eighties flourish of saxophone. These flourishes aren’t bad, because they are restrained and seem to understand that a horn’s job in a country song is to splash a little colour around the edges, not replace the guitar. Kudos to saxophonist Donny Silverman for not overdoing it.

The album is a tight 10 songs and 33 minutes. Considering how long it had been since Van Zandt had released an album, I wish there was a bit more content. Van Zandt even does a third version of “For the Sake of the Song” which is beautiful but after studio versions on 1968’s “For the Sake of the Song” and 1969’s “Townes Van Zandt” I’m not sure we needed another.

Fortunately the other nine songs are new content and don’t disappoint. The album opens with “Snowin’ On Raton” and it was as good as a studio song as the live version that drew me to the record in the first place. It is Van Zandt at his best; worn out and leaving town with a fresh heartbreak in the rearview mirror:

“Bid the years goodbye, you cannot still them

You cannot turn the circles of the sun

You cannot count the miles until you feel them

You cannot hold a lover that is gone.”

Brilliant stuff, where all the images in the first three lines wander ungrounded in your mind, only to be anchored by the fourth line, resolving the heart of the song’s true topic; love neglected over time, and an idealized past that turned into the dreadful present with same inexorable burning ferocity of the sun.

The album is packed with lyrics that sneak up on you, and final lines in quatrains that land like the thud of a hammer. This is an album where love and love’s collapse are two sides of the same coin, landing out of our control on the hard pavement of roads that Townes has walked too long. Even hopelessly romantic songs like “At My Window” and “Little Sundance #2” have a weariness to them that in their best moments exude contentment and at their worst, surrender. Van Zandt isn’t the first person to feel powerless in the face of love, but he’s one of the best there’s ever been at capturing it in song.

And Van Zandt makes it all seem so damned idyllic amidst the darkness. His imagery encourages you to relax into what is happening, and accept the good and the bad as it comes to you, knowing you couldn’t do otherwise if you tried. As he sings in the title track “At My Window”:

“Living is dancing

Dying does nothing at all

Baby and I are laying here

Watching the evening fall”

Van Zandt’s own evening fell too soon, but “At My Window” is a nice parting gift near the end of a hard road for one of our era's great storytellers.

Best tracks: Snowin’ On Raton, At My Window, Buckskin Stallion Blues, Still Looking For You, The Catfish Song

CD Odyssey Disc 878: Townes Van Zandt

When I first started the Odyssey I invoked the “can review a new album right away rule” a lot more often (I have since come to fully embrace the chaos, and rarely review newly purchased albums, unless I’ve just seen the associated concern). Back when I did review new records, I had just bought a bunch of Townes albums and so burned through a whole lot of them all at once. I now miss getting a Townes album in the mix, so when it happens (as it just did) it is a welcome event.

Disc 878 is….For the Sake of the Song

Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1968

What’s up with the Cover? Hey man, it was the sixties.

How I Came To Know It: I got into Townes from hearing Steve Earle’s tribute album “Townes” and since then have been buying up whatever I could find. “For the Sake of the Song” was just me drilling through the collection.

How It Stacks Up:  It seems every time I review a Townes Van Zandt album I own more than the last time. I’m now up to 10, and of those I must reluctantly put “For the Sake of the Song” in lowly eighth place. It is still a very good record, but there’re just too many better ones.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

“For the Sake of the Song” is the first album Townes Van Zandt released, and while it showcases his immense talent, it cannot help but be overshadowed by the run of five amazing albums he would release in the three years following.

The biggest problem with “For the Sake of the Song” is the production, which sounds sparse to the point of feeling threadbare. Townes’ voice (never his strongest asset) is ill-served by the tinny quality of the recording, which makes him sound flatter than usual. His phrasing of each line is still instinctive and engaging, but the lack of oomph in the lower range takes away some of his songs’ natural gravitas.

The limitations of the recording is most keenly felt on the title track, which is an exceptional song, rich with lyrics about a man leaving a woman as tenderly as he can, but refusing to lie in the face of her pleas. The chorus has an unexpected open-heartedness about it that is refreshing:

“Maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song

Who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong?”

The deeper truth is that ultimately it is Townes that sings about her for the sake of the song, and so in a way, takes her with him, despite his leaving. I’ve heard similar sentiments from Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan. I believe this is how troubadours got laid in the sixties.

I discussed this song in a slightly different light when I reviewed Townes’ self-titled follow up album back at Disc 339, which is a reminder that six of the 11 tracks on “For the Sake of the Song” (the album) are re-recorded on later records between 1969 and 1972. In every case, the later version is better. If those versions didn’t exist, I would probably like the originals more, but I can’t deny that later records did a better job at the same thing.

Fortunately, great songs like “Tecumseh Valley” and “Sad Cinderella” transcend bad production, and while I would have preferred to hear the later recordings, I was still happy they appear here as well.

In terms of unique content, four of the five other songs tend to be weaker. “Talkin’ Karate Blues” tells the story of a skinny kid going to learn karate. The song is intended to be funny, but despite a clever rhyme scheme and what (I hope) is a deliberately obtuse narrator, it doesn’t translate well into the twenty-first century.

The one track Townes never re-recorded that I wish he had is “Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls”. This standout song tells the tragic tale of a young girl who sleeps with her man, but then kills herself over the perceived shame of her act. The whole tale is over in just 2:35, abruptly ending, just like the subject of the song.

While Townes would later do a better job of the album’s best tracks, it doesn’t diminish how great the songs are, and they still sound fresh and thoughtful almost fifty years since they were first recorded.

Best tracks:  Tecumseh Valley, Sad Cinderella, All Your Young Servants, Sixteen Summers Fifteen Falls 

CD Odyssey Disc 557: Townes Van Zandt

I just finished the week five redraft for my football pool.  I only dropped one player, so hopefully that’s enough.

But this isn’t a football blog it’s a music blog, so let’s get back to it. It has been five days since my last review and I’m hungry to move on, despite the excellence of this next album.

Disc 557 is…. In the Beginning…

Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1966 – well, released in 2002, but recorded in 1966

What’s up with the Cover?  A picture of Townes Van Zandt at the age of two, shooting a B.B. gun.  "Be careful, kid - you'll shoot your eye out!"

How I Came To Know It:  I’m a big Townes Van Zandt fan and was excited to find another album of his full of ‘lost’ music from his early career.  I bought it assuming that like all his other albums, it would be good.

How It Stacks Up:  I have nine studio albums by Van Zandt, if you count the double album of “High, Low and In Between” and “The Late Great Townes Van Zandt” as two albums, as they were originally intended.  Of those nine, “In the Beginning…” does well despite stiff competition, and I’ll place it sixth.

Rating:  4 stars

You’ll often hear people say, ‘that’s a pretty little song’ with very little appreciation how difficult it is to write one of them.  Well, pretty little songs spill out of Townes Van Zandt like water down a stream, and “In the Beginning…” shows that he was doing it years before he ever got any credit.

The album was recorded in 1966, but it wasn’t released until it was found in the back of a small label’s music files years later.  As a result the world had to wait two years longer than they should have to experience Townes’ songwriting genius, and more than 35 years before they heard these particular songs.

What is great about these songs is that they are every bit the equal of Townes’ later and more famous work, and hold all the same great elements that make him one of the most admired songwriters in North America – at least to those who have been lucky enough to be exposed to him.

The simple melodies are as artfully constructed as later work, and many of the songs remind me strongly of later songs.  “When Your Dream Lovers Die” is very similar in construction to “Sad Cinderella” in terms of chord progression, lyrical style and even subject matter.  While I like “Sad Cinderella” a bit more, they are both great.  Townes has an exceptional ability to string together a long run of imagery in words that unfold gently in time with the music, never feeling hurried until they end on a minor note that leaves you wanting more.

“In the Beginning…” also has some very bluesy elements which Townes would also develop on later records.  Songs like “Black Jack Mama” make you taste the dust and dirt of down n’ out living.  I love the opening line:

“Big blonde mama, lord, Apartment 213

Moves like a cobra snake and treats me a like king

Roll me over easy mama, roll me over slow

Do your best to please me, lord

And I’m bound to take you with me when I go.”

The album’s opening track, “Black Widow Blues” combines these bluesy elements with Van Zandt’s easy and lyrical folk stylings to create a style that is unique and as interesting as anything greats like Johnny Cash or Kris Kristofferson were doing at the same time.  “In the Beginning…” shows that Van Zandt found his musical voice early in his career.  While not quite as artfully forged as masterpiece records like “Our Mother the Mountain” or “High, Low and In Between” all the elements are here.

I also like that Van Zandt’s voice is so strong on this early recording.  I also have much later Van Zandt, both from “Live at McCabe’s” and his last studio album, “No Deeper Blue” where his voice has been ravaged by all the abuse he’s put his body through over the years.  Still rich and evocative, but a bit tattered.  On “In the Beginning…” it is strong and vibrant.  The tortured vision is still there, and the soul is noticeably old even in 1966, but the voice is still holding on strong.

I wished at times the songs were a bit longer or more fleshed out, and at thirty-three minutes of playing time, the album leaves you wanting more.  Then again, if you are going to err on a song’s length, it is better to err on the side of shorter.

Apart from that, there is little to not recommend this album and while it isn’t the place to start your Townes Van Zandt collection, that’s only because of his many other masterpieces edging it out for that honour.  Like the finding of the old recordings themselves, listening to this album just makes me miss his talent all the more knowing he didn’t live to see it released.  From “Colorado Bound”:

“It’s a mighty lonesome feeling, listening to the wind a-howlin’

Watchin’ raindrops fallin’ to the pavement outside your door

It’s a fool I am for waitin’ for the sound of your returnin’

For the sound of gentle breathin’, footsteps ‘cross the floor.”

Thanks for the unexpected footsteps, Townes; you are a welcome ghost breathing one more visitation into my music collection.

Best tracks:   Black Widow Blues, Maryetta’s Song, Gypsy Friday, Waitin’ For the Day, Colorado Bound, Black Crow Blues

CD Odyssey Disc 484: Townes Van Zandt

It was cool to find out today that I inspired another guitar virtuoso early in his career with a song called “The Vigil”, by Blue Oyster Cult.  Of course all I did was hand over a recording of the song; guitarist Buck Dharma did the rest of the inspirational part, and the student at the time (Vaughn) put in the time and talent to master the instrument.  Still, it felt cool to play even a small role in the formative process of a now accomplished guitar player, especially since I’m at the formative end of the process myself.

In fact, I’m just back from my first ever guitar lesson.  Despite still seriously sucking at the guitar, it was a damned good time.  A big shout-out to my teacher, Josh, who is both patient and talented and I fear is going to get me deeply addicted to bluegrass.  Also, he is one hell of a gifted singer.  I’m looking forward to absorbing as much knowledge from him as I can - likely more so the guitar than the singing, I expect.

Josh ended the lesson by giving me a few songs to try to learn, and hearing about my abiding love for Townes Van Zandt, he happily tossed out the usual Beatles song approach for “If You Needed Me.”  Which, given this next review, brings us full circle again.  Life can be a crazy wheel, man.

Disc 484 is… Live at McCabe’s

Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1995

What’s up with the Cover?  I’m not sure if this is a photo of Townes Van Zandt or some random hobo.  I’m going to go with Townes because although disheveled, the clothes look like they are quality.  Whoever it is, they have a nice warm hat for a cold winter day.

How I Came To Know It:  I have most of Townes’ studio albums and another live one as well.  “Live at McCabe’s” was just me picking through his section in the music store for something new and seeing this, cheap and available.

How It Stacks Up:  As of today I have eight studio albums by Van Zandt, but I’ve only got two live ones (neither being the classic “Live at the Old Quarter”).  I have this one, and “Live at the Bluebird Café, which he recorded the same year alongside Steve Earle and Guy Clark.  I prefer the Bluebird Café album, which I reviewed back at Disc 231.

Rating:  2 stars

Listening to “Live at McCabe’s” inspired me to go in search of some of the studio tracks I heard on it that I didn’t own yet, but this was only partly because Townes’ brilliant songwriting inspired me.  It was also because I wanted to hear the song played better than it was here.

“Live at McCabe’s” is the best and worst of Townes Van Zandt.  Recorded in a small music store in Santa Monica, California that is famous for its intimate concerts, Van Zandt’s magnetic personality is present in spades.  The banter on the recording (a staple of any good live record) is warm and real, and you can feel that whether Van Zandt is introducing a song, telling a joke or just struggling with trying to locate dobro player Kelly Joe Phelps so he can get him up on stage, he has the audience in the palm of his hand.

That said, banter is a very delicate balance on a live album.  You definitely want a little, but a little goes a long way.  “Live at McCabe’s” has too much of this stuff, and Van Zandt’s self-deprecation may be heartfelt, but it also comes in places where he interrupts his own song to mention it.  This is particularly true at the beginning of the record, whereas on the back half he settles down and plays a bit more, and talks a bit less, which is a big improvement.

Also the dialogue tracks are not separated from the songs, which I don’t like.  Funny as it is, I want to be able to skip the “drunk and his lost car” joke after I’ve heard it a half-dozen times.

On to the music which is played fairly sloppy, despite the very resonant and vibrant acoustics present in McCabe’s.  Townes may be intentionally dirtying it up a bit, but I think it needs a bit more polish so the songs can shine through.  I must have half a dozen versions of “Pancho and Lefty” – at least three of them by Townes – and this is the worst of the bunch.  That said, “Pancho and Lefty” is still an amazing song, such that even the weakest version in my collection is still a joy to listen to.

I had no other versions of Townes singing “Snowin’ On Raton” or “Banks of the Ohio” however, and both were beautiful.  They come at the end of the album, where Townes has settled down into his own musical spell and gets caught up in the emotion.  At this stage of his career, Townes is less than two years from his own untimely death and the weight of the world is heavy in his voice.  On “Snowin’ On Raton,” you can almost hear him hunched over the mike when he sings:

“Bid the years good-bye you cannot still them

You cannot turn the circles of the sun

You cannot count the miles until you feel them

And you cannot hold a lover that is gone.”

Townes has felt a lot of miles at this stage, and if his guitar and voice both sound a little worn out, you can’t blame him.  All you can do is sit with a mixture of pity, envy and awe as he awkwardly works up the courage through the course of the concert to honestly tell you about it through music.

The two tracks featuring Kelly Joe Phelps are both nearer the end of the record.  His dobro gives a nice light tone on top of the heavy strumming of Van Zandt’s guitar.  On “Banks of the Ohio” it provides a strong balance to the tragedy of the song, and then it holds together “Walbash Cannonball” (a song Van Zandt insist every folk singer learn to play) even as Van Zandt loses focus near the end of the song, and lets the rambling monologue sneak back into his performance.

This album is really only for people who already appreciate Townes’ stronger work, whether studio or live, and can appreciate him for his faults as much as his genius.  However, if you’ve got everything else, and think you can handle hearing him stripped down one more layer, then give this a listen.  It is not a good record on its own, but Townes makes it so with his talent, his songwriting and his good-natured willingness to play host to his own impending tragedy.

Best tracks:  Snowin’ On Raton, Katie Bell, Banks of the Ohio, Marie.

CD Odyssey Disc 339: Townes Van Zandt

There are few if any artists that have impacted me as strongly in the past couple of years as much as this one. I was glad to roll another album by him as the Odyssey rolls on.

This next album came out in 1969. That year some pretty impressive albums were also released by The Beatles (Abbey Road), The Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed) and Bob Dylan (Nashville Skyline).

I own and love all these albums, but it is time to give this next record its equal share of the glory.

Disc 339 is...Townes Van Zandt (self-titled)

Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1969

What’s Up With The Cover?: A peaceful looking Van Zandt sits at a table in his kitchen, eyes closed. Was he waiting to be fed and fell asleep, or is he just deep in thought? We just don't know. I do know his pants are a little short, but hey, it is 1969, so maybe that was the style at the time.

How I Came To Know It: As I alluded in the teaser, I've been on a Townes Van Zandt rampage the last two or three years, and this was just me buying more of whatever I could find by him.

How It Stacks Up: In addition to a couple of live albums, I now have seven studio albums by Van Zandt (with three more on my search list). Of the seven, this self-titled effort is pretty sweet. I'd put it second, displacing my earlier choice for that spot, "Our Mother The Mountain", by the narrowest of margins.

Rating: 5 stars

It has been over a hundred reviews since I reviewed my last Townes Van Zandt album ("Our Mother The Mountain" at Disc 236) and it is good to be back.

Townes' self-titled album was not his first album, but his third, immediately following "Our Mother The Mountain", released earlier in the same year. Where "Our Mother The Mountain" has a more sombre, moody tone, and a lot of narrative songs, "Townes Van Zandt" has a more introspective feel that is equally engaging; perhaps more so.

The topics on this album are those that Townes knows well; troubled relationships, living wrong and his ongoing (and only occasionally successful) efforts to find much meaning in day-to-day living.

This is an album from a man who thinks too much, and too deeply; character traits that speak to his exceptional intelligence, but that would also doom him to a life of substance abuse and an early death. On "Lungs" he sings:

"Well, won't you lend your lungs to me?
Mine are collapsing
Plant my feet and bitterly breathe
Up the time that's passing.
Breath I'll take and breath I'll give
Pray the day ain't poison
Stand among the ones that live
In lonely indecision."

The words of this song trip out quickly, and on every listen a different section will catch my attention and appreciation. No matter what section grabs me, I can see Townes standing in the dark, smoking and brooding about what it all means. He may be in indecision, but he's always looking for answers, and that's what makes the song resonate.

When Townes sings about love, he is part romantic, part realist. Like all subjects, Townes wants to get to the essence of any idea, and not just pay it lip-service. The first song on the album, "For The Sake Of The Song" is a beautiful depiction of an argument between a woman demanding a man be more emotionally open with her, and his reply that if he does not feel it, than to say otherwise would be simply dishonest:

"Why does she sing/her sad songs for me/I'm not the one
To tenderly bring/her soft sympathy/I've just begun
To see my way clear/and it's plain/if I stop I will fall
I can lay down a tear/for her pain/just a tear and that's all
What does she want me to do?/She says that she knows/that moments are rare
I suppose that it's true/Then on she goes/to say I don't care
And she knows that I do

Maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song
Who do I think that I am to decide that she's wrong

The song is so melodic and true to the natural cadence of speech that at first I thought it was a form of sprung rhythm, but it isn't. It is actually a complex trio of rhymes broken by a caesura, or dramatic pause within each paired line like this:

ABC/ABC/DEF/DEF/GHI/GHI

Then just when you recognize and slip into this pattern Townes adds one extra third, an extra G (the rhyme, not the note), where he sings "And she knows that I do," creating a deeper emotional hit to the moment where he admits to caring for her, just not in the way she wants him to.

For anyone who thinks form and structure in writing is pointless, let Townes show you otherwise. The ear may not take the time to dissect the rhyming structure, but the use of it hits you where it hurts, and in doing so helps to demonstrate not only a conflict between two people, but an internal argument within the songwriter himself.

Thematically, I love how each verse ends with that heroic couplet, where he acknowledges that if she feels the need to tell him something, then who is he to tell her she shouldn't. It is his way of finding a middle ground, where if he can feel as he wants to, he must acknowledge she has an equal right to react to it. Brilliant stuff.

While "For The Sake of the Song" is perhaps the best example, Townes' phrasing and song construction is captivating on all these tracks. He's every bit the poet that more famous artists like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are, and his songs are just as thought provoking.

Musically, "Colorado Girl" is one of the better examples of how Townes draws us in, with simple arrangements, driven by a light western-guitar style. He plays similar to Gordon Lightfoot only a bit more thoughtful and - frankly - better (sorry Gord - you know I love you). I've always felt this song would be a great bookend with Jimmy Rankin's masterpiece "Colorado." Townes' song is about going out to Denver to find a girl he loves, and Jimmy's is about the heartache after that same woman leaves you.

Four of the tracks on this record were actually on Townes debut album titled, "For The Sake Of the Song", but this is actually a positive. "For The Sake Of The Song" suffers from low production value that make the songs on it (including the excellent title track) sound tinny and hurried. On "Townes Van Zandt" the production hits exactly the right notes, and shows these amazing songs in all their rightful glory.

"Townes Van Zandt" is a very short album. There are only ten songs, and the total running length is just shy of thirty-five minutes. I found myself having the opposite reaction I sometimes have, in that I wish it were longer. I'm not sure it could be long enough, in fact. This is a winner, and worth your time.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 236: Townes Van Zandt

The Odyssey has a hankerin' for Townes Van Zandt right now - I just rolled a live album featuring Townes at Disc 231, and here we are again.

I am totally fine with this - I can handle as much Townes Van Zandt as the Dice Gods see fit to serve me, and more besides.

Disc 236 is...Our Mother the Mountain
Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1969

What’s Up With The Cover?: It is a picture of Townes, looking very country to suit this album. Half his face is in light, and half in shadow, which is about as accurate a depiction of Townes as you could have.

How I Came To Know It: I heard Townes Van Zandt through the Steve Earle remakes album "Townes". "Our Mother the Mountain" was part of my initial explosion of purchasing him back in Fall of 2009.

How It Stacks Up: I now have six studio albums and two live albums of Townes. "Our Mother The Mountain" is pretty high up that list - I'd say second only to "High, Low and In Between" (which I should've given 5 stars to back when I reviewed it at Disc 43, but gave it an insulting 4). That record is actually a 5, and so is this one. While I can't correct the earlier mistake, I can at least get this one right.

Rating: 5 stars

You can't go wrong with Townes Van Zandt. He is a master storyteller, songwriter and sometimes prophet to those who fall under his spell. "Our Mother The Mountain" is his second album, coming out way back in 1969.

Townes records will often move around thematically. He'll have a couple funny songs and some bluesy numbers mixed in with his mainstay of thoughtful folk stories. "Our Mother the Mountain" does not range about this way, and consistently sticks with folk music. It does not suffer for this, and the tracks here are as strong as anything Townes will ever write.

Moreover, of all of his first three records (the others being "For The Sake of the Song" and "Townes Van Zandt"), "Our Mother the Mountain" benefits from the best production value. It is very stripped down, but it avoids the slightly tinny sound that occasionally creeps into Townes' early recordings.

Lyrically, this record is the richest Townes has to offer. My favourite song is the title track, an eerie tale of a man living in the mountains who has a strange and fey visit one evening from a beautiful woman:

"My lover comes to me with a rose on her bosom
The moon's dancin' purple all through her black hair
And her ladies-in-waiting they stand 'neath my window
And the sun will rise soon on the false and the fair.

"She tells me she comes from our mother the mountain
And her skin fits her tightly and her lips do not lie
She silently slips from her throat a medallion
Slowly she twirls it in front of my eye."

This song of faeries and haunted forests sounds like it could have been written two hundred years ago. Like any great folk song, it is timeless. I'd like to think that in two hundred years from now, it will still be played around campfires on a single guitar.

Townes' vocals - never his strongest quality - are at their best on this album. Partly because the slow, quiet songs, many in a minor key, suit his style, but also because he sings them so well, and with such pathos. I was often favourably reminded of Leonard Cohen from around the same period.

Because of the richness of language, and the subdued nature of the music, "Our Mother The Mountain" requires your full attention. It is not music to put on in the background, but if you want to sit quietly in the dark - maybe alone, maybe with a loved one in like mood - it will deeply move you.

Best tracks: Everything except maybe "St. John The Gambler" because it sounds too much like "House of the Rising Sun". That still leaves 10 other kick-ass tracks, so it is hardly a problem.

CD Odyssey Disc 231: Earle, Van Zandt and Clark

This week's album I actually brought over to a friend's place on the weekend just to share some of the tracks. Odd that it should be rolled so soon after. Coincidence or conspiracy?

Disc 231 is...Together At the Bluebird Cafe
Artist: Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark

Year of Release: Even though the CD was published later, the concert was in 1995, so...1995.

What’s Up With The Cover?: A picture of our three artists. Naturally Townes Van Zandt is in the middle, and naturally he's wearing a shirt featuring playing cards. RIP, Townes.

How I Came To Know It: I saw this album in Ditch Records last year while poking around for more Townes Van Zandt albums. When I saw it had rare live tracks from Steve Earle AND Townes Van Zandt, I had to have it. Because of this record, I discovered Guy Clark - at the time as an afterthought.

How It Stacks Up: This is a live concert album, so it doesn't really stack up against the studio albums I have for the three contributors. Let's just say I like it.

Rating: 4 stars.

"Together At The Bluebird Cafe" was a benefit concert put on by Earle, Van Zandt and Clark in support of the Interfaith Dental Clinic. The Clinic provides free dental services to those who can't afford it, so it was a good cause.

Beyond this, it is a good record. I'm not a huge fan of live albums, but this is one of the better ones I've heard. It is done in a style called "in-the-round" (thanks Wikipedia) which means that the three artists just take turns singing their songs. Although I've never seen video, it sounds like they all stay on stage during each others' performance, and it is quite an intimate venue. I'd give my right arm to have seen this show live (I would've been 25).

OK, I wouldn't give my right arm - but only because I really like having two arms, but I would've liked to have seen it nevertheless.

Each player on the record relies on a single guitar, and the album is very stripped down folk country of the very best kind. Occasionally one artist will back up another, but even this is rare. I also can hear an uncredited Emmylou Harris make an appearance in the background vocals of Guy Clark's "Immigrant Eyes" (is there any album Emmylou Harris doesn't do background vocals for? I hope not...).

Earle is at his best, just having gotten straight after years of alcohol and drug abuse. Timeline wise this record is right between 1995's "Train A'Comin'" (reviewed at Disc 127) and 1996's "I Feel Alright" (reviewed way back at Disc 14). Highlights include understated and humble versions of "My Old Friend the Blues" and "Valentine's Day", and the crowd pleasing "I Ain't Ever Satisfied." This latter track Earle has in his recent tour's set list and is a great time, as he gets the audience to sing along in full throat every time. Let's just say you leave satisfied.

My favourite Earle track, though, is an acoustic version of "Copperhead Road". I've heard this done in concert as well, and I love it stripped down to a single guitar. I think it is how the song was born to be played. My only minor quibble is that for some reason Steve skips the first verse. It's the last song on the album, so maybe their rental of the Bluebird Cafe was up or something.

Van Zandt is not at the top of his game vocally, but the man writes songs that are too compelling to be denied. Also, you get a glimpse of his famous humour, with the most entertaining banter coming from him. In one story he tells of getting drunk and losing a gold tooth in a game of dice. I won't give the ending away, except to say it features vice grips and Southern Comfort.

At other times, Van Zandt's storytelling is bitter sweet. He openly admits that while some of his friends (including Steve Earle) have gotten their lives straightened out, he is still working on it. Shortly after this concert, Van Zandt would be dead, a victim of his ongoing alcohol abuse.

Since I already knew Van Zandt and Earle were great, the find on this record for me was Guy Clark. When I bought the album, Clark was basically the 'get one free' in my 'buy two' purchase. I was to be more than pleasantly surprised.

Like Townes Van Zandt, Clark is one of those singer/songwriters that musicians know and love, but aren't that commercially successful. He is a master storyteller, almost a musical Hemmingway in the way he delivers deeply evocative themes through very simple language.

Standout Guy Clark songs on the record include a song that makes you feel like you can fly ("The Cape"), and a song about the death of Clark's father called "Randall Knife" which chokes me up every time I hear it.

The one I gravitated to on this listen was "Dublin Blues", which is an exquisite song, both musically and lyrically, about the regret of lost love, and how travelling the world will only remind you that unhappiness is portable. It begins:

"I wish I was in Austin, in the Chili Parlour Bar
Drinking Mad Dog Margueritas and not carin' where you are.
But here I sit in Dublin, just rollin' cigarettes
Holdin' back and chokin' back the shakes with every breath."

Hearing Guy Clark naturally made me race out to buy something by him, but I ended up with a 1978 record that I did not enjoy. In fact, I'm selling it and it will be "Disc Not Appearing In This Blog." Fortunately, shortly thereafter, I found his 1995 album "Dublin Blues" which has the studio version of every excellent track on "Live At The Bluebird Cafe" and a few other gems besides.

One of the secrets to a good live album is capturing the right balance between performance (should be most of it) and a bit of entertaining banter (should be used judiciously but not completely ignored). This album strikes the perfect Banter Balance, and captures three artists at very interesting stages of their respective careers. It is a snapshot of musical history not to be missed.

Best tracks: So many, but I'll go with 3 from each. Steve Earle: My Old Friend The Blues, Tom Ames' Prayer and Copperhead Road. For Van Zandt: A Song For, Tecumseh Valley and Pancho and Lefty. For Clark: The Cape, Randall Knife and Dublin Blues.

CD Odyssey Disc 123: Townes Van Zandt

After a brief hiatus, I'm home from a whirlwind trip to Vancouver where I celebrated my buddy Tony's 40th birthday (Happy Birthday!)

This review sees a new category introduced to the CD Odyssey - a quick comment on album covers. Why? Why not.

Disc 123 is...Delta Momma Blues
Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1971

What’s Up With The Cover?: A relaxed Townes leans nonchalantly against a wall. Beside him someone has apparently discarded a perfectly good bed spring - or it belongs to that couple making out in the shade of the staircase. Um...Townes - maybe give them a little space?

How I Came To Know It: As I've noted in previous Van Zandt reviews, I came to know him through a tribute album by Steve Earle. "Delta Momma Blues" is a more recent addition, and is just me drilling through his catalogue.

How It Stacks Up: I have five Van Zandt albums, as well as a live album. Of those five, the previously reviewed "High Low and In Between/The Late Great Townes Van Zandt" is the best (technically two albums). I place "Delta Momma Blues" last among the five studio albums, but still excellent.

Rating: 4 stars.

"Delta Momma Blues" is right in the middle of Van Zandt's highly creative period, which ran from about 1968 to 1972.

Although this album is solidly folk, it does add some blues elements. It works well enough, particularly on "Brand New Companion", I love the opening of this song:

"I've got a brand new companion
Gonna do right this time
She cools me with her breathing
And chases away those half bottles of wine"

"Brand New Companion" reminds me of KISS' "Cold Gin", as a song about a relationship at least partly based on having someone to get drunk with.

Most of the other tracks are either sad and introspective, break up songs, or a combination of both. Exemplified in "Come Tomorrow":

"It's strange how many tortured mornings
Fell upon us with no warning
Looking for a smile to beg or borrow
It's over now, there's no returning
A thousand bridges sadly burning
That light the way I'll have to walk alone
Come tomorrow."

The exception to these themes is the opening track "FFV". This is a track about an engineer who drives his train too fast, crashes it, and dies in the wreck. Well, it is kind of related, the engineer admits he's 'proud to die with the engine I love, 143', so it is sort of a love song.

"Delta Momma Blues" is not an uplifting album, but it is a good one. Townes is mournful and believable, and both music and lyrics showcase his incredible talent.

Best tracks: FFV, Only Him Or Me, Tower Song, Come Tomorrow, Brand New Companion, Rake

CD Odyssey Disc 49: Townes Van Zandt

Back to my own choosing again for this round of the CD Odyssey, and so I return to my new musical passion - Townes Van Zandt

Disc 49 is...Flyin' Shoes

Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1978

How I Came To Know It: In my first review of Townes Van Zandt's work, I explained how I came to know him through Steve Earle's remakes album of his songs. I bought this album the same day I bought High Low and In Between.

How It Stacks Up: I still haven't heard all of Van Zandt's albums, because I've had a flurry of CD purchasing outstripping my ability to keep up with listening. I need a good session of painting to get there. For now, I'm going to say this album is not as good as High, Low and In Between - but it is still good.

Rating: 4 stars

I just can't get enough Townes Van Zandt right now. It is like finding the treasure of a lost civilization - in this case that lost civilization is the seventies.

This particular album is a fairly later one - Van Zandt's creative explosion is pretty much 1968-1972. After that he did 3 albums in the next 22 years, as he became progressively less able to function under the weight of addiction.

This album still showcases his considerable talent. As with every other album I have by him, songs from here have been remade quite freely by other artists that I greatly respect.

Lyle Lovett does "Loretta" on his new album, and "Flyin' Shoes" on his double album homage to Texas songwriters called "Step Inside This House". Steve Earle's remakes album covers both "No Place to Fall" as well as doing his own version of "Loretta". That means "Loretta" was remade by 2 artists in a single year (2009). That Loretta girl, gets around. Even I have given her a few spins.

Van Zandt's paints Loretta's portrait beautifully:

Loretta she's my barroom girl
Wears them sevens on her sleeves
Dances like a diamond shines
Tells me lies I love to believe
Her age is always 22
Her laughing eyes are hazel hue
Spends my money like water falls
Loves me like I want her to.

Lately, it is Van Zandt that has me spending my money like water falls, as I obsessively buy all his damned records. When will I stop? I don't know, but "Flyin' Shoes" only encourages me to keep going.

Best tracks: Loretta, No Place To Fall, Flyin' Shoes, When She Don't Need Me.

CD Odyssey Disc 43: Townes Van Zandt

Once again a new album (for me) makes an appearance. I've got about 7 or 8 new albums right now, so every other album could be a new one. I've added another rule that I can't do 2 new albums in succession.

This review is the beginning of what I think will be a long, satisfying relationship with Townes Van Zandt's music.

Disc 43 is...High, Low and In Between/The Late Great Townes Van Zandt

Artist: Townes Van Zandt

Year of Release: 1972

How I Came To Know It: I had never heard of Townes Van Zandt until Steve Earle did a tribute album to him. I reviewed that album back on September 4th of this year. I loved the songs, and decided I needed to hear the originals.

How It Stacks Up: Van Zandt has about 8 albums or so - most of which are from the late sixties and early seventies. I've got 5 Van Zandt albums, because I have been going nuts buying them. So fast, I haven't even heard them all yet. I've heard 3 and they are all equally good so far.

Rating: 4 stars.

Townes Van Zandt's most famous song is "Pancho and Lefty" which was remade famously by Willie Nelson in the eighties. I also recently found an album of Emmylou Harris that does the same remake back in 1978 (but I'll review that when I roll it).

Van Zandt is a "only a few in a generation" type talent. Steve Earle is quoted as saying "Townes Van Zandt is the greatest songwriter ever, and I would stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my boots and say so" - or something like that.

I think Van Zandt is one of many great song writers, and I'd put him in the rarified air of Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Lucinda Williams, Bob Dylan and a few others. However, I wouldn't shout that from Bob Dylan's coffee table.

Don't get me wrong though - if the situation called for it, I'd stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table. I mean - maybe if he was already up there and invited me. Or maybe if he said something that really pissed me off. Or maybe if the floor was being flooded with some kind of horrible chemical spilling out of some nearby industrial plant and I had to choose between standing on Bob Dylan's coffee table and death.

Anyway - Van Zandt can write the blues, folk, and outlaw country and does all of them with equal excellence. I personally enjoy him the most when he does mournful introspective songs that put his personal demons on display, and help us see something universal in them.

Songs like "Greensboro Woman" sing of the tempations of the road, and "Sad Cinderella" is a beautiful song about a woman with fault of her own that is strongly reminiscent of Dylan's "Queen Jane Approximated" and which stands up strong to that classic.

Van Zandt also has fun tracks like "Mr. Mud and Mr. Gold" which tells the story of a poker game through the eyes of the cards. When you listen to the song you'll think it is a battlefield of Kings and rebel sons - but it's just a little seven card stud. I think. It moves pretty fast.

Unlike Dylan, Van Zandt is mostly lost to obscurity, yet once you have an ear for his name you'll hear many current artists pay homage to his legacy.

Ordinarily I would at this point complain that the album has 22 songs on it. However, this is really 2 albums of 11 songs each, so I'm making allowances. There are many five star songs on these 2 albums, but there are some that are not - and so the whole album can't get a perfect score. It comes close, though.

It is sad that Van Zandt's many bad habits took him from us so young, and reduced his ability to create. At the same time, his genius was salved by his addictions, and without them he may not have left us the same legacy. It is a hard truth that great art often comes with a great price. As Van Zandt himself sings in "High, Low and In Between":

What can you leave behind
When you're flyin' lightning fast
And all alone?
Only a trace, my friend,
Spirit of motion born
And direction grown.
A trace that will not fade
In frozen skies
Your journey will be
And if her shadow doesn't seem much company
Who said it would be?

Rest in peace, Townes Van Zandt. Thanks for all the great music I've heard of yours already, and for the songs awaiting me down the road.

Best tracks: You Are Not Needed Now, Greensboro Woman, To Live Is To Fly, High Low and In Between, No Lonesome Tune, Sad Cinderella, Snow Don't Fall, Poncho & Lefty, If I Needed You.

CD Odyssey Disc 28: Steve Earle

What disc did I randomly roll today? Answer - I didn't roll! I just decided. I decided that I needed a new rule - and that rule should be that when I buy a new album, I review that one right away - rather than waiting potentially years before it graces my car stereo.

You see, people, randomness isn't about anarcy - it is about fun. It is about using the randomness to inspire connections you might not get with the plodding linear thought of the wakeful mind.

And rules aren't about restrictions - they are about fun as well. Focusing the randomness just that small amount so you still get somewhere. Trust me on these things - I am a randomness guru and a veritable prophet of how rules can be fun.

And so here endeth the lesson on Calvinball.

Disc 28 is Townes
Artist: Steve Earle

Year of Release: 2009

How I Came To Know It: I buy everything by Steve Earle, because he rules. This is my second review of Earle - here's the first. There will be many more - I can't wait.

How It Stacks Up: I have 14 Steve Earle albums now. If he had more, I'd have more. This one is a collection of Townes Van Zandt remakes. This makes it kind of a "best of" so can't really stack it up.

Rating: 4 stars.

Townes is a collection of Townes Van Zandt remakes. Van Zandt is an outlaw country/folk artist who did most of his work from 1968-1973 but also recorded a couple albums in the eighties, I think. He lived a hard drinking, drug filled life of a rambler - and died at a comparatively young age in 1997 (I believe).

I had never heard of Townes Van Zandt, but he was a huge influence on Steve Earle, who followed him around as a young artist - as many did in the day. Earle cleaned up and is still with us, but Townes wasn't so lucky.

Anyway - I didn't know any Townes Van Zandt, except "Pancho and Lefty" which was done by mainstream artists in the eighties. The writing is astonishing and incredible. It is poignant and painful and a brilliant emotional tour of a mind that was a genius IQ, that reportedly scored 1170 on an SAT but refused college in favour of sex, drugs and rock & roll.

The songs range from a traditional bluesy sound with country twang (White Freightliner Blues, Brand New Companion) through narrative ballads (Pancho and Lefty, Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold) to deeply personal folksy songs (No Place to Fall, Colorado Girl). The range of writing is severe, and the songs hit you in the deep dark places of your heart that the majority of us take great care to hide.

Earle's voice does great work here, and he plays some of his best stuff on a variety of instruments (guitar, mandola, harmonica, harmonium, percussion). At times he gets a little quiet. It is just slightly too quiet, but it needs to be, as its clear this work was intensely personal for him to record.

Steve Earle did an homage to Townes on the the 1997 album "El Corazon". The song is called "Ft. Worth Blues" (Van Zandt is from Ft. Worth). That song was a fitting tribute to this influential, but relatively unknown songwriter. Townes is a whole album that honours Van Zandt, and does so in his own words.

I am so primed to go find some Townes Van Zandt and hear the original music. I can't frickin' wait. Bring it.

If this album weren't all remakes, it would be 5 stars. However, I'm going to say that, "as a rule" I just can't do that. Also, handpicking some of what are his best songs also makes for an unfair advantage.

My thanks to Steve Earle - the man who got me interested in Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris can add Townes Van Zandt to that august list.

I'll end this review with a couple of lines from the last song on the album, "To Live Is To Fly"

We all got holes to fill
Them holes are all that's real.
Some fall on you like a storm,
Sometimes you dig your own.
The choice is yours to make,
Time is yours to take;
Some sail upon/dive into the sea,
Some toil upon the stone.

To live is to fly
Low and high,
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes;

Best tracks: There are 15 tracks on this album and I LOVE at least 10. Just go buy the album and spare me typing them all out.