Townes Van Zandt
(Fat Possum)
Sometimes, a reissue doesn't have to be unearthed with bonus cuts and expanded liner notes - simply the fact that it is back in circulation, precisely as it was, is good enough. Originally issued in 1977, this recording of 1973 live performance at Houston's legendary hole in the wall, The Old Quarter, finds Townes Van Zandt with nothin' but a guitar, his songs, and his stories. And a hundred or more beer-drinkin' Texans crammed into a space no bigger than my living room on a hot and humid July night. And an air conditioner that had to be shut off to minimize background noise for the sake of capturing this recording. One listen and you are instantly as drawn in as the fortunate few present on that particular night. His shirtless figure in the black-and-white photo on the album cover seems less of an attempt at cultivated cool (or an antidote to the Houston summer heat) than a visual complement to the raw and exposed material that awaits within.
With Townes' studio albums, you might find a quiet folk version of a song on one album and an almost baroque folk-pop arrangement of that same song on another album. Here, Townes spins tales of his short-lived days in the fraternity house or cracks corny jokes bordering on the obtuse, but when he turns his attention to his musical craft, you can't help but feel that (gendered article aside) he's addressing himself in his lyric: "Maybe she just has to sing for the sake of the song."
Well, before I made my home in Austin, Texas, two of my musical heroes-Doug Sahm and Townes Van Zandt-were gone. Listening to this live recording, I can't help but feel that Townes is not as far away as I might expect.
Standout tracks: "Kathleen" "Waiting ‘Round to Die" EDWARD BURCH
