"...the Van Gogh of lyrics..." – Billboard
"The most unbelievable part is that song-master Van Zandt didn't include them in his repertoire, or re-record them on later albums...leave it to Van Zandt, who died in 1997, to remind the world of his
genius from the grave." – Scott Bauer, Associated Press
"These songs offer priceless insight into the development of Van Zandt's talent for effortlessly exposing his soul...as a whole, In the Beginning...is a major find and a valuable piece of Texas music history." – Austin Chronicle
The saga of revered troubadour Townes Van Zandt continues with Compadre Records April 22nd release of "In The Beginning," ten songs the late Texas tunesmith recorded as demos in 1966 (some with a band, some solo), well prior to his debut LP, "For The Sake Of The Song" (later retitled First Album).
The songs add invaluable insight into the development of Townes' songwriting genius. Though he only recorded one of these tunes in later years, you can see and hear the genesis of several later songs which he presented on his debut album.
The issue of "In The Beginning" marks the end of a long search for Jeanene Van Zandt, Townes' ex-wife, executor and mother of two of his three children. "Townes told me about these songs many times and I had lyrics on them but he insisted he had recorded them when he first came to Nashville", the Jeanene recalled. "Townes' first publisher, Jack Clement, rang me about ten years ago when he came upon a cache of Townes material but neither of us thought there was anything else in the vaults" she continued. "Then I got a call from our mutual friend, photographer C.J. Flanagan who said Jack had found these tapes when he was converting the catalog to digital."
Many consider Van Zandt to be the finest songwriter Texas has produced with the industry bible Billboard declaring him as be "the Van Gogh of lyrics." Robert Palmer of The New York Times compared him favorably with Hank Williams, saying, "both men live in their music, as if singing and writing and being human were the same thing and all as natural as breathing. Their songwriting craft and vocal musicianship are exceptional, but what you hear is beyond all that; it seems to be the direct, untrammeled expression of a man's soul. You can hear the South and Southwest in the accents, the casually mentioned names of towns and rivers, the music's unforced swing. But the highway runs from one end of America to the other, and for men like these the highway is heritage and home."
Born into a prominent Fort Worth, Texas, family on March 7, 1944, Townes was supposed to be a lawyer, at least that's what his family hoped he would be. But he dropped out of college to become an itinerant folksinger in 1964. Influenced originally by Elvis Presley, Van Zandt later came under the spell of three iconic, maverick American musicians, Hank Williams, Lightning Hopkins and Bob Dylan. He plied his trade on the Texas folk circuit before Mickey Newbury and Clement launched him on a career which took him all over the U.S., Europe and Australia.
Van Zandt songs are characterized by extraordinarily vivid imagery, intricate wordplay and deceptive depth. He never tried to write "commercial" material, despite living in Nashville for many years. However, he did score a major hit when Emmylou Harris and Don Williams covered his "If I Needed You" in 1981. He enjoyed his only #1 smash in 1983 with Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard's sparkling version of his enigmatic tale of Mexican bandits, "Pancho & Lefty." A long list of revered artists have covered his songs, including Doc & Merle Watson, The Cowboy Junkies, Bob Dylan, Bobby Bare, Nanci Griffith, Lyle Lovett, Steve Young, Kathy Mattea, Freddy Fender, Mudhoney, Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, Ricky Skaggs, Doug Sahm, Hoyt Axton and Richard Buckner.
Come April 22 we'll all be able to step back 37 years, to Nashville in '66 and listen to Townes Van Zandt, "In The Beginning."
