Covered in Folk: Townes Van Zandt
(Jeffrey Foucault, Guy Clark, Peter Mulvey, The Lemonheads + 7 more)
I don’t know as much about Townes Van Zandt as I’d like to. Despite the great similarities in sound and sensibility between his work and that of Guthrie, Dylan, and other core members of the folkworld, somehow he never cropped up in a childhood balanced between a mother’s love of the Seeger classics and a father’s fandom for the singer-songwriters of his own generation.
Of course, some of that is due to Van Zandt’s relative obscurity during the bulk of his life - as my father notes, until his resurgence in popularity at the turn of the century, it was almost impossible to find any of the artist’s studio recordings. But a commitment to coversong brings with it a lifetime of scouring liner notes and copyright notices. And the more I look, the more I find that so many of the great lonesome, mournful songs of distance and alienation recorded by the artists I love best in the last fifteen years have had their start in the hands and heart of Townes Van Zandt.
Too, in the same way that Big Star holds a special place in the hearts of a particular sort of blogger, there’s a high level of modern respect and celebration for the work of the soft-spoken Texas troubadour in the world of alt-country audiophiles. Pancho and Lefty, especially, seems to be well-covered and well-shared; over the years I’ve collected a full score of great covers of the song from websites hither and yon, so I’ll be going light on it today, in order not to preempt a someday Single Song Sunday feature on the song.
The combined commendations of the artists I love and the bloggers I respect came to a head back in the spring, when the buzz about Steve Earle’s tribute album was just starting to build. Suddenly, the blogosphere was full of Townes, both covers and originals. Most notable, at least for its combination of folk sources and coverage, was this fine post from astute countryfolk blog Beat Surrender, who offered an alternate version of Townes featuring a solid mixed bag of live and studio covers of the fifteen songs Earle chose to cover. The set comes highly recommended, and - as it’s still live - I’ll not repeat it here.
But there’s always more to be found. Here’s a short, mostly mellow set of my favorite covers of the Townes Van Zandt songbook, just a tip of a very large iceberg, scavenged and scoured with care - heavy on the singer-songwriter folk, and without our usual indie-to-alt diversity. Taken together, they make a great tribute to a great man and musician, lost to the lifestyle before so many of us would find him in the first place.
- The Be Good Tanyas: Waiting Around to Die
(from Chinatown, 2003) - Robert Earl Keen: Snowin’ On Raton
(from Gravitational Forces, 2003) - Jeffrey Foucault: Nothin’
(web release; date unknown) - Peter Mulvey: Tecumseh Valley
(live bootleg, date unknown) - Gillian Welch: Pancho and Lefty
(live bootleg, circa 1997) - Richard Shindell: I’ll Be Here In The Morning
(from Reunion Hill, 1997) - Nanci Griffith: Tecumseh Valley
(from Other Voices, Other Rooms, 1993) - Guy Clark: To Live Is To Fly
(from Old Friends, 1988) - The Lemonheads: Waiting Around to Die
(from Varshons, 2009) - Steve Earle: Marie
(from Townes, 2009) - J. Tillman: My Proud Mountains
(from Introducing Townes Van Zandt Via The Great Unknown, an amazing new indiefolk release arriving on October 26, 2009)
Townes may be long gone, a victim of the hard life which he celebrated so tenderly, but his legacy lives on in both the songs and the hard-working artists he inspired. As always, if you like what you hear, then pay your share to help the next generations survive on the road: follow the links above to pick up albums and tour dates, direct from the source wherever possible.
Cover Lay Down shares new and newfound coverfolk favorites every Wednesday, Sunday, and the occasional otherday.
Category: Covered in Folk, Townes van Zandt
October 15th, 2009 at 1:04 am
For some reason, I’ve shied away from an in-depth Townes post - even though I have nearly everything he recorded. I thought about some sort of Artist Spotlight after I finished a recently published biography simply titled Townes, but never did. Maybe I’ll re-read it soon and come up with some sort of entertaining way to pay tribute.
The best way to ‘get to know’ Townes - check out ‘Live @ The Old Quarter.’ Great live set that shows not only his talent, but his charismatic stage presence.
October 15th, 2009 at 4:40 am
Thanks. TVZ is one of my favourites.
The Beat Surrender list includes Marie from Texas Rain with Willie Nelson. This is one of the most despondent songs I have heard. Steve Earle’s version is hoot hollering party time by comparison.
October 15th, 2009 at 8:06 am
You really need Cowboy Junkies version of “To Live is to Fly”. It’s really very good.
A touch on the rock side of folks - but probably less than the Lemonheads might be.
s
October 15th, 2009 at 11:25 am
For a sad yet fascinating overview of Townes’ life, check out Be Here to Love Me, a DVD biography featuring interviews with him as well as some of those closest: his wives, his son, Guy Clark, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Townes-Van-Zandt-Here-Love/dp/B000CNF80W
October 15th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Hey, thanks for the kind comments on Beat Surrender.
Not sure if you if you’ve heard but there’s a TvZ covers album due out later this month - details here
http://bit.ly/3WGJ1
Cheers,
Simon
October 15th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Sorry missed the last track you posted you already know all about the new TvZ covers album, I blame reading the post on my iPod
Simon
October 16th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
The Lemondheads cover is great!! (the rest are, too, but that one stood out to me)
October 18th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I absolutely love Jeffrey Foucault’s cover of Nothin’. Love it.
October 19th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Townes was an ol’ drunk with too much heritage (his family goes back a LONG way in Texas history) and too much crazy, who could write like an angel when he was on his game. And he had a theatrical sense when he chose to use it–ask around and you’ll probably hear the “No 2 Alike” story about him and Butch Hancock.
It’s just a pity the drunk and the crazy ganged up and killed him before his time.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:07 am
What a great post! I also highly recommend the documentary Be Here to Love Me.
As I’m typing this Townes just came on my iPod shuffle.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I got to see Townes in austin and the band had a fight and he walked out.The guy was a real Talent.For me his”out my window” album shows just how cool and hot a muso and man he was.One of lifes better experiences.
March 15th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Todd Snider had an awesome cover of “No Place to Fall” he released on eighteenminutes.com a few months ago
May 19th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
[...] it into the original posts where they rightfully belonged. A surprisingly large quantity of great Townes Van Zandt covers came in on the heels of our October tribute to the softspoken troubadour. Several of these are [...]
July 18th, 2010 at 11:06 am
[...] first took on the Townes Van Zandt songbook back in October, but the Townes covers have been coming fast and furious this year, thanks in no [...]
August 26th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Look out for Riding the Range tribute to Townes. On sale September 13th 2010 http://www.qe2activitycentre.co.uk