Tag: Townes Van Zandt

Remembering Townes: 26th annual “wake”

 in Reviews, Songwriters

By Paul T. Mueller

A wake can be a mournful affair, but the mood at the Old Quarter Acoustic Café on the first day of 2023 was anything but. As they have every January 1 since 1998, talented musicians and appreciative fans gathered at the small listening room in downtown Galveston, Texas, for the annual wake to celebrate the songs of Townes Van Zandt. This year’s event featured an impressive cast of performers, both professional and amateur, each giving his or her interpretation of one or more songs, most of them either written by or written about the legendary artist.

Numerous such events are held in various locations every year, but no other has quite the same direct connection to Townes, given that this one is held in a venue once owned by Rex (Wrecks) Bell, his former bassist and running buddy. Bell, who for years played bass in Van Zandt’s band (as well as those of Lucinda Williams and Lightnin’ Hopkins, among others), and accompanied him on adventures both legal and otherwise, served as emcee of the event. He played his role with characteristic delight, telling frank stories about tour life and dredging up the kind of bad jokes his old friend was famous for.  

Wrecks Bell

The five-plus-hour event featured 65 songs by 24 performers of varying degrees of musical ability, and every performance was received with grace and enthusiasm befitting a community of music lovers. Some of Van Zandt’s better-known songs – “White Freightliner Blues,” “To Live Is to Fly,” “Pancho and Lefty” and others – were covered more than once, proving interesting contrasts between the various renditions.

Van Zandt had his demons and many of his songs reflected his struggles with them, but the love and respect with which the performers interpreted his music infused the evening with joy, in the full sense of that word. More than a few made a point of thanking Joel and Angela Mora, who bought the Old Quarter from Bell in 2017, and Bell and his wife, Janet, who live part time on Galveston Island and maintain a connection to the venue.

Tex Renner

A few highlights:

  • Galveston singer-songwriter Tex Renner’s gruff take on “Blaze’s Blues,” Van Zandt’s tribute to another partner in mischief, Blaze Foley
  • A quiet, beautifully harmonized rendition of “White Freightliner Blues” by the Houston-area duo Grifters & Shills (John and Rebecca Stoll)
  • “The Ghost of Townes,” written as a tribute to Van Zandt by Chad Elliott and performed by Tommy Lewis
  • A beautifully dark trifecta of “Waitin’ Around to Die,” “Marie” and Steve Earle’s TVZ tribute “Fort Worth Blues” by Waxahachie, Texas-based Bobby Huskins
  • “Rex’s Blues” by its subject, Bell, and his wife, accompanied by ace guitarist Gary Reagan. Bell, who seems to be aging in reverse, was in fine voice all night; he played using Van Zandt’s fingerpicks.
  • Austin-based singer-songwriter and guitar wizard Marina Rocks’ take on the lovely “Snowin’ on Raton,” which started out quietly and built to an emotional, high-volume conclusion
  • Ocala, Florida-based Chris Ryals, who took on some less-familiar Van Zandt songs – “Our Mother the Mountain,” “Tower Song” and “Colorado Bound”
  • The evening’s big finale of “White Freightliner Blues” and “Two Hands,” performed by Joel and the Honey Badgers (singer/guitarist Dwight Wolf, bassist Christopher Smith Gonzalez and drummer/venue owner Joel Mora), accompanied by Wrecks and Janet, Gary Reagan and Chris Ryals.
Rebecca Stoll

Townes Van Zandt remembered at 20th annual “wake”

 in Americana Music, Songwriters

By Paul T. Mueller

There were few tears but plenty of laughter and good fellowship at the 20th annual Townes Van Zandt wake, held Jan. 1 at the Old Quarter Acoustic Café in Galveston, Texas. The event takes place every year on the anniversary of the 1997 death of the revered singer-songwriter from Texas. Free to the public and open to anyone who wants to get onstage and play, it’s one of the signature events at the iconic dive bar in downtown Galveston. The club is the successor to the Houston venue where Townes Van Zandt recorded one of his best-known albums, 1973’s Live at the Old Quarter; it was founded and, until recently, owned by musician and former Van Zandt bandmate Rex Bell, who goes by “Wrecks.”

The Townes Van Zandt wake at the Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe

The wake, which this year also honored Guy Clark and Leonard Cohen, started about 6:30 p.m. and ran until a little after 2 a.m. Scores of music fans packed the tiny club, at times almost certainly exceeding its legal capacity. Over the course of the evening, something like 25 performers, both professional and amateur, performed nearly 30 of Van Zandt’s songs (some were covered by more than one artist), sometimes assisted by the audience. The only rule (and it was broken once or twice) was that the songs had to be ones written by Van Zandt, Clark and Cohen. Fifteen different Clark songs were performed, along with four of Cohen’s.

The line between amateur and professional seemed a bit blurry at times, but those performing included Bell and his wife, Janet; singer-songwriters Joanna Gibson, Matt Harlan, Marina Rocks, Tommy Lewis, Robert Cline Jr., Chuck Hawthorne, Drew Landry, Charlie Harrison, Cody Austin, Lazarus Nichols, Smith & Turner, and Libby Koch. Most performers were from Texas, but some came from beyond the borders of the Lone Star State, including one from Virginia and Dutch musician Jacques Mees, touring Texas for the first time with vocalist Jolanda Haanskorf.

Gary Reagan, Joanna Gibson, Janet Bell and Wrecks Bell

Gary Reagan, an accomplished acoustic guitarist and longtime wake attendee, backed many performers with beautiful picking and slide work as well as harmony vocals. “Playing ‘Rex’s Blues’ with the Rex for almost 20 years is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,” he noted.

During his time onstage, and in the course of introducing other performers, Bell offered stories about and memories of his old friend, describing him as “a beautiful, beautiful man” who, despite his demons, never took out his frustrations on anyone else. Bell, who recently sold the Old Quarter and plans to relocate to Arkansas, noted that he had suffered a stroke last July 4, but “I’m making a great comeback.” During one of his mini-sets he sang “Rex’s Blues,” which Townes Van Zandt wrote about him decades ago. “I hated that song,” Bell said, but eventually reconciled himself to it. Two other artists also performed the song, despite what one said was an “unwritten rule” that it not be played. Other songs that got multiple readings included the lovely “If I Needed You,” sweetly done by Bell and Gibson, and the dark and nihilistic “Nothin’.” Marina Rocks’ solo rendition of the latter was suffused with a scary intensity worthy of Townes himself; it was one of the standout performances of the evening.

The assembled cast celebrates Townes Van Zandt

Other notable performances included a heartfelt, if somewhat halting, version of “Tecumseh Valley” by a man who gave his name as Robert and said he’d traveled from Virginia; a suitably sad rendition of “Marie” by Bobby Hoskins, whose gruff delivery on that song and two by Clark left the sometimes chatty audience in churchlike silence, and a cheerful take on Clark’s “Stuff That Works” by a colorfully dressed lady who introduced herself as “Jackie Sue, the next big thing” and told the audience, “I believe the Old Quarter is stuff that works!”

Gracing a small table onstage, and available to anyone in need of a bit of liquid courage, were a party-size bottle of vodka and a two-liter bottle of Diet Orange Crush – reportedly the ingredients of Townes’ cocktail of choice. Several performers, amateur and professional alike, partook of these libations over the course of the evening.

Gibson, the evening’s first performer, said she had attended every Townes wake since the event’s founding. “What a great way to start the new year,” she noted. Gibson was one of the few to take on Cohen’s catalog, leading off with nice renditions of “If It Be Your Will” and “Suzanne.” Other Cohen interpreters included Nichols, with a hoarse but heartfelt “Dance Me to the End of Love,” and Galveston’s own Billy Marabella, whose rendition of “Suzanne” included a recounting of his personal history with the song.

The wake ended with a fine rendition of Van Zandt’s “Snowin’ on Raton,” with Matt Harlan, Libby Koch, Chuck Hawthorne, Tommy Lewis and Charlie Harrison taking turns on vocals. As the last few audience members dispersed into the foggy streets of Galveston, performers and club staff gathered onstage with Wrecks and Janet for a group photo.

Review: Jack Saunders with Robbie Saunders

 in Reviews

Robbie and Jack Saunders

By Paul T. Mueller
–In the beginning, at least, the atmosphere in the Old Quarter Acoustic Café in Galveston  on the evening of June 15 wasn’t exactly the quiet, attentive ambience you might expect at a CD release show by a respected artist. Far from it – Jack Saunders’ show had more the feel of a rowdy Friday night in a tiny beach-town dive.
But if Saunders was bothered by the yakking and whooping – and the persistent efforts of a middle-aged patron who seemed to believe his bar purchases included the right to carry on a high-volume personal conversation with the guys on stage – he was professional enough not to show it. Instead, he just played and sang a little louder, and eventually most of the more annoying fans either left or quieted down, making the rest of the show an intimate and thoroughly enjoyable experience for those who came to listen.
If the behavior of some audience members wasn’t entirely appropriate, the venue certainly was. Named after the long-closed Old Quarter in Houston, where Townes Van Zandt recorded a legendary live album in 1973, the Café is owned and run by Rex “Wrecks” Bell, who played bass for Van Zandt (and for Lightnin’ Hopkins, Lucinda Williams and many others). The club, in a funky old building on the edge of downtown Galveston, is known as a songwriters’ haven and listening room, as well as a virtual shrine to Van Zandt.
Saunders, a Houston resident and a fixture on the Texas singer-songwriter circuit for many years, was celebrating the release of his latest CD, A Real Good Place to Start. His 90-minute set, which also featured his nephew Robbie Saunders on acoustic and electric guitars, Dobro and lap steel , was a lively mix of hard-earned wisdom, fond reminiscences, love songs and odes to the road, most of them written or co-written by Jack Saunders.
Saunders, who is also a well-known producer and studio owner in Houston, accompanied himself on guitar, Dobro and harmonica, showing off some fine skills on all three. He frequently traded licks and solos with his nephew, who at 25 has been playing guitar for nearly a decade and a half and whose playing seemed to improve as the evening went on. He spent most of the show playing an acoustic guitar that his uncle had given him – the same guitar, Jack Saunders said, on which he had written his first song.
Some highlights:
– “Elegant Grace,” a gentle love song Saunders said was written with film star Grace Kelly in mind, which he dedicated to a couple in the audience who had gotten married earlier in the day
-“You’ll Have to Wait,” a hey-hang-in-there-it-gets-better song Saunders wrote for his nephew during trying times a few years back.
-“Red Dirt and Rusted Steel,” a tribute to the landscape of the West that featured plenty of high lonesome imagery and some nice electric guitar accompaniment by Robbie.
-“I’ve Got a Lot,” written by Robbie Saunders, himself a singer-songwriter, which he described as a song about things one doesn’t do or say in a relationship
-A nice rendition of Tom T. Hall’s “That’s How I Got to Memphis,” featuring Robbie on Dobro.
The show ended with a long, jammy take on “Doors of Amsterdam,” a song Jack Saunders said had its roots in a couple of weeks spent “licking his wounds” at the end of a European tour with country singer Tracie Lynn.

Review: I’ll Be Here In The Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt

 in Songwriters

By Terry Roland

I’ll Be Here In The Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt  by Brian T. Atkinson    Published by Texas A&M University Press.

The question comes to mind when first picking up Brian Atkinson’s new book, I’ll Be Here In The Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt: Do we need another book or really any more observations about the enigmatic Texas folk-country-blues poet? With two biographies already in print, two documentaries and recorded tributes, have we come close to exhausting observations of his legacy and the comedy and tragedies of a life that led to an iconic library of songs and stories that have been packaged and repackaged for commercial gain?

A few chapters in and the answer becomes clear. This is not a traditional biography or an attempt to simply cash in. The premise here is balance, perspective and a view of the universal nature of art. While the word-of-mouth and commercial use of Townes’ name and image in Americana circles today exceeds any fame he approached during his lifetime, he sometimes evokes a holiness that hardly matches the reality.

Atkinson’s book attempts to bring us to the core of Townes’ identity as an artist and person, complete with adoration, criticism, flaws, gifts and curses in all of his unwashed personal insanity and wild creativity. Because of the format of the book. he succeeds more often than not.

Each chapter comes from musicians and songwriters, some friends and some strangers, revealing their own experiences with Townes Van Zandt. While this narrative choice could run aground with a tendency to deify the legendary Texas songwriter or take the opposite route through the humorous and sometimes hilarious stories of his many drunken escapades, skillful editing and the careful selection of contributors allows Atkinson to present a portrait of Townes as complex and elusive as many of the songs he wrote.

This Townes-as-Citizen-Kane approach never leads to the ultimate Rosebud moment revealing what made Townes such a brilliant and tragic figure. This is not the point of the book. The subtext is clear; life and art can never be completely explained by any one person, but in the end it is to be enjoyed and appreciated without condition, even through its dangers, tragedies, risks, insanity and joy. In the end, all we have is the song and in many ways, that’s enough. As Townes’ song title suggests, we do it all ‘for the sake of the song.’

Contributors to the book offer insights that may reveal more about themsleves than they intend. For example Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz finds Townes’ songs so hard to inhabit that he hesitates to sing his songs. Guy Clark recalls how both he and his close friends were as influenced by Dylan Thomas as they were by Bob Dylan. Kristofferson remembers that Townes had no idea of the respect he had from other songwriters. Other contributors include veterans Billy Joe Shaver, Chip Taylor, David Olney and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot.

While the majority share a real love of Townes, Atkinson is careful not to edit out criticism, including The Gourds’ Kevin Russell who believes Townes’ entire songwriting legacy can be summed up in what many view as his best album, Live at the Old Quarter.

Atkinson has made a point of selecting contributing artists who are friends and peers and also younger artists who have been influenced by Townes, which enrich the book. For example, Jay Farrar of Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt and singer-songwriter Cory Chisel are two artists who demonstrate the influence the songwriter still has on younger artists, while the obvious choices of Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Butch Hancock attest to Townes’ legacy.

Still, the inclusion of an artist like Jewel and the omission of Eric Andersen, who wrote songs with Townes and Steve Earle and is regarded by many as Townes Jr., is hard to understand.

While we have every right to be skeptical about a new Townes Van Zandt biography,
Atkinson nicely captures his spirit and legacy in this valuable new book.

Review: This One’s For Him, A Tribute to Guy Clark

 in Reviews

by Terry Roland

– Released on November 8, two days after veteran Texas songwriter Guy Clark’s 70th birthday, This One’s For Him: A Tribute To Guy Clark, succeeds beyond expectations as a tribute to a much- loved songwriter and a well-produced album of finely crafted country-folk music.

It may be the mark of a great songwriter that a diverse group of musicians can make an album of songs that not only capture the artist’s vision, but emerge with each song realized to near perfection.

Produced by Tamara Saviano whose 2004 release, Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster, won a GRAMMY and Clark’s friend and collaborator Shawn Camp, this is a masterfully produced album of 30 handpicked songs by 33 of today’s finest Americana artists.

Some of the greatest of the singer-songwriters of the last five decades have aged into their craft, but none have done so with as much grace, dignity and imagination as Guy Clark. His legacy of song gives his friends plenty of material to work with on this album.

Leading off with a chuckle from Rodney Crowell who says, “let’s give her a good go and make old Guy proud of us,” then proceeds to do so with the opening “Old Time Feeling.” The song sets us up for what is to come; a loving, reflective, funny, heartfelt tribute to one of the great storytellers and craftsmen of American song.

What follows plays at times like short stories, fragments of chapters in a novel, sweet poetry, western stories, tall-tales, cowboy haikus, personal testaments, musings and meditations on regret and joy, life-lessons laced with humor and wisdom, characters of the past aged with grace, remembered loved ones, death songs
and love ballads, all painted with various shades and strokes of lyrical colors.

If this were an exhibit of the lifetime work of a visual artist, it would take several galleries to fill. As it is, it takes this many fine performers and singer-songwriters to do justice to Clark.

The trick with any tribute album is to match material and artist, for the sake of the song and the overall production of the project. Many past tribute albums have turned into well-intentioned, unfocused failures.

But This One’s For Him avoids those traps by tapping into Guy Clark’s original recordings. The album embodies its title by keeping to the simple, intimate style Clark has mastered so well in his own studio work over the years.

It’s a style that allows the beauty of each song to surface. That makes this an anthology graced with continuity and a sense of history. This One’s For Him is the best album of its kind since the classic tribute to Merle Haggard, Tulare Dust.

A decade before Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin came together to make their historic American Recordings, Guy Clark had already released a series of live-in-studio, intimate, stripped-down acoustic recordings on the Sugar Hill label.

Albums like Old Friends, Boats To Build and Dublin Blues offered minimal production gloss in favor of a straightforward and organic sonic experience. While many obscure artists had championed this approach through the years, Guy Clark was among the first major songwriters to elevate purity over production.Today, this remains the gold standard in Americana music.

Some of the strongest moments on the album come from female artists. This makes sense for Clark who has often written songs reflecting a woman’s point of view (“She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” “Magdeline”). Shawn Colvin’s smoky sexy reading of “All He Wants Is You,” Rosanne Cash’s expressive interpretation of “Better Days,” and Rosie Flores’ funky and spirited version of “Baby Took A Limo To Memphis,” all feel as though this was how these songs were intended to be performed – by women.

It’s impossible to mention Guy Clark without a reference to Townes Van Zandt. One touching moment among many is the bittersweet sound of Towne’s oldest son, John Townes Van Zandt narrating “Let Him Roll,” a love story about a Dallas prostitute and her alcoholic lover. It is eerie and touching to hear this tale with guitar- picking, phrasing and a vocal presence that sounds so much Townes. It feels like a tribute from Townes to Guy, channeled by his son.

Hayes Carll brings the country blues out in “Worry B Gone,” while Steve Earle revels in the western imagery of “The Last Gunfighter Ballad.” Both give the songs added grit, which distinguishes them from the original versions.

The old friends of Guy’s also do him proud. Willie Nelson’s “Desperados Waiting For A Train,” haunts in its simplicity. It’s a song that only grows more poignant with time as the singer and the song age.

Ramblin’ Jack Elliot turns in a gentle interpretation of the engaging “The Guitar.” Terry Allen’s “Old Friends,” also plays out with a beautiful country-blues simplicity.

Kris Kristofferson’s reading of “Hemingway’s Whiskey” delivers gut-level authenticity. The track opens with a short tale from Kris of a personal encounter with Hemingway then folds into a quintessential Guy Clark (literally whiskey-soaked) metaphor of life lived to its fullest. The slightly drunk emotion in Kris’ voice comes through as he carries the album’s title lyric with it:

There’s more to life than whiskey
more to words than rhyme
Sail away three sheets to the wind
Live hard, die hard
This one’s for him.

Other moments that will lure the listener to repeated listening include EmmyLou Harris and John Prine’s duet on “Magnolia Wind, Radney Foster’s smooth and easy version of “L.A. Freeway,” and Jerry Jeff Walker’s closing track “My Favorite Picture of You.”

The house band, which recorded live in the studio, included multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Shawn Camp, guitarist Verlon Thompson and keyboard player Jen Gunderman. Listen for Lloyd Maines on an array of dobros and steel guitars, bassists Glenn Fukunaga and Mike Bub and Kenny Malone and Larry Atamanuik on drums. The musical backing is skillfully interwoven with mandolins, lap steel guitars and fiddles.

This One’s For Him: A Tribute To Guy Clark is a living legacy from some very talented friends, a well-deserved tribute to a great craftsman and an early holiday present that invites us to discover or re-discover the best in Americana music through the songs of one of our national treasures.

(Terry Roland is an Americana-roots music journalist who has written interviews, reviews and feature articles for FolkWorks, Sing-Out, No Depression and The San Diego Troubadour.)