favorite TVZ songs

My faves are If I Needed You followed by Pancho and Lefty. He is amazing.
I'm still getting to know his music so I'm sure I'll have more in the future,
but when I first heard If I Needed You I had to find out who wrote it. Any suggestions on where to start with him? I'd love to be able to get my hands on a DVD of this documentary.

KL

Snowing on Raton
Dead flowers
Katie Belle
Thunderbird wine blues

I'd have to say "To Live is to Fly" is the best song ever written. I'm not one for hyperbole. I'm just saying that it's the best song I've ever heard (my favorite version is the Cowboy Junkies version on Black Eyed Man). Anyway, it's got everything -- clever verbal irony, great metaphors, great imagery.

Everything is not enough, nothing is too much to bear...

Townes best work is Live at the Old Quarter. If you like TVZ and you don't own it, get it right away. You'll love it.

Other favs... Pancho and Lefty, Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold, No Place to Fall, Rex's Blues...

Todd

Snake Mountain Blues

Yeah, he's the best. Hands down.

Flyin' Shoes, Waitin' Around to Die, and for some reason I can't stop listening to Dublin Blues:

"Here I sit in Dublin, just rollin' cigarettes, holdin' back and chokin' back the shakes with every breath"

and of course, "I have seen the David, I've seen the Mona Lisa too, I have heard Doc Watson play Columbus Stockade Blues"

Man, can you dig it?

can't wait to see Be Here.

saint john the gambler, like a summer thursday,tecumseh, most of the "our mother the mountain album" actually. I'm not really a roots music person, but that album is one of the most beautiful I ever heard.

well, i dont often get the chance to share my love for townes with other people...i turned my dad onto him and then a few friends and i am embarassed sometimes to spread the gospel of mr. van zandt so fervently, i dont want to sound like a freak, but throught his songs, he taught me how to live...how to appreciate the beauty of the moment and realize that to hold onto it too tight will crush it...to lives to fly, the highway kind, colorado girl, mr. mudd and mr. gold, tecumseh valley, the catfish song...i could go on...rex's blues (tell my baby i said so long, tell my mother i done no wrong, tell my brother to watch his own, tell my friends to mourn me none)...holy hell!!!!
he has a way of articulating feelings that you didnt understand yourself and that you thought others never had...his lyrics have a definite buddhist-walk-this-earth-in-the-moment...and he seems so gentle in his songs...

and by the way, dublin blues and dont let the sunshine fool ya were both written by his good friend and another one of my favorites, guy clark....

I have done a few of his songs at open mic nights, and i always feel better knowing that somehow it connects me to him, just like performing any folk song does...the singer learns to inhabit the song... I cant wait to see this movie...there is also a movie on dvd called HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS...and from the trailer to this film, it looks like a lot of townes footage from that film is in this one.

you all have to read the article by william hedgepath on townes...just look up the authors name and townes "messages from the outside" ...and then pass it on, spread the gospel and encourage everyone you know to find themselves in one of his songs.


email me if you're a townes freak too...i feel so damn lonely...but its good company.

BIG HEEFA

I was obsessed with Cowboy Junkies in high school and think that their version of 'To Live's To Fly' might even be better than Townes' own. But Townes actually wrote another song on that album (Black Eyed Man), specifically for the Junkies, called 'Cowboy Junkies Lament'. A sample:

"Momma don't you worry, night's approaching / There's a hole in the heavens where some sin slips through / Just close your eyes, dream real steady / Maybe just a little will spill on you"

It's quite possibly my favorite Townes song even though he never performed it, and what the Junkies did with it musically is a great showcase for Townes' lyrics. The Junkies also wrote a song for Townes, largely about how he taught them to gamble (and lightened their pockets in the process) when they were lucky enough to tour the American south with him.

Anyway, that's how I got to know the man in question. Other favorites:
Rex's Blues
Buckskin Stallion
Snowin' on Raton
Why She's Acting This Way