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by David Levine
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Jeopardy: Audio Daily Double! The category is: "Brilliant but Obscure Songwriters."And the answer is: He's a Texas singer songwriter worshipped by fellow musicians such as Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle and The Cowboy Junkies; he penned the number one country hit Poncho and Lefty, has a recording career that spans 30 years and also wrote this song? (Steve Earle disc#11 - 00:07) Tecumseh Valley [224K .wav|160K .au].
I'm sorry, Jimmie Dale Gilmore is wrong. Townes Van Zandt is the answer you were looking for.
Why isn't Townes Van Zandt famous? Or rather, more famous.
Well it seems there are many reasons:
1. He doesn't care that much. 2. Battles with drugs and alcohol. 3. He's a throwback to the days where your name
was made on the road not in the studio.4. Sporadic releases with large gaps in between. Whatever the reason, most people who know his work think he should be respected and revered more than he is.
Mr. Van Zandt's new release on Sugar Hill Records out of Durham, N.C., is called No Deeper Blue, and it's his first studio record since 1987. Recorded in Ireland, this is an album of simple, pure country and blues songs that explore the always cheery Townes Van Zandt themes like homelessness, drug addiction and abandonment. An exception is Katie Blue Bell which is a love song to his daughter.
What Townes has the ability to do is write songs in simple language using familiar melodies to create stirring pictures and stories that ring true. All the while he remains original. Bruce Springsteen pulled it off on Nebraska. Neil Young pulled it off on Harvest. Dylan, a great songwriter, has a larger vocabulary at least in his song writing but he's done it on many occasions.
Listen to Townes go off at the end of Blazes Blue [224K .wav|160K .au] (#2 - 02:39) he has no self consciousness about exposing his voice in its rawest most uncontrolled state. The Hole [256K .wav|192K .au] (#3 - 01:28), a conspicuously named tune that uses a scary, harpy like woman as a metaphor for hell. It's a discussion between a man and green-eyed old woman with barbed wire hair who entreats him to forget his father , wife, and kids to come with her into the hole. I like the way he phrases this line, "I'll miss, I said, a girl I know. I can't just leave her there to pine." To which the old woman replies, "She's still got plenty of men to go. I'm sure she'll do just fine."
There is a wonderful song on this disc called Billy Boney & Ma [224K .wav|160K .au] (#8 - 00:15) which has about 20 verses and no chorus. To the best of my knowledge, it's about this guy who goes to a battleground and digs up a skeleton that comes to life. They decide to embark on a life of crime where "Boney," the skeleton, is the looks and Billy is the brains.
They do fine mugging people until an old lady seduces Boney into her apartment with food. Boney gets fat and he and Ma (the old woman) open a cafe. Ma is expecting a baby that they will name after Billy. Okay, this is way out there. I don't even want to know what this song means but there is some major archetypal shit going on here. Add to this Declan Masterson's haunting Uileann pipes and you got one weird, cool tune.
I also like the wordplay on If I Was Washington [160K .wav|96K .au] (#10 - 01:05). Check out the lyrics and New Orleans/Irish sound. The mix of tin whistle, sax, clarinet, tuba, mandolin, and accordion is definitely unique, yet fitting. This record has a nice ratio of up tempo to slow tunes. The mood changes with every song but still remains in its American roots confines. The Irish influence is definitely present in several cuts especially the use of the word LOAM! This is a great record by a master songwriter, and it really grows on you, the way great songs do. Get it!
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