juke: Townes Van Zandt

"Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that"

Steve Earle.

"It's goodbye to all my friends

It's time to go again

Think on all the poetry

And the pickin' down the line

I'll miss the system here

The bottom's low and the treble's clear

But it don't pay to think too much

On things you leave behind

I may be gone

But it won't be long

I will be a-bringin' back the melody

And the rhythm that I find"

Townes Van Zandt was born into a wealthy oil family from the South and moved around for much of his youth. His guitar playing was heavily influenced by blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins and he honed his skills in the Houston folk clubs of the mid-60's. He released his first studio album in 1968, the beautiful 'For The Sake of the Song', where his elegant lyricism is somewhat drowned out by saccharine production. He had a productive next decade releasing 7 albums before taking a 10 year break from recording in 1978. He returned in 1987 with 'At My Window' and continued to release albums from then till his untimely drink-related death in 1997.

It's hard when just describing his output to fully convey the immense respect that Townes commands. His music is often stark, and introspective, and usually quite sad and haunting. His voice is not technically amazing in the conventional sense, but it is beautiful and bitter-sweet and affecting, and it can relate more raw emotion than most trained vocalists could manage.

He is revered among other musicians, and his songs have been covered by artists including Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Merle Haggard, Mudhoney, Willie Nelson, Cowboy Junkies, Manfred Mann, Lylle Lovett, Robert Plant and the Band of Joy, Jackson Browne, Jerry Jeff Walker, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Gillian Welch, Sufjan Stevens, Evan Dando, Alison Krauss, Mark Lanegan and Isobell Campbell, the list goes on......