Tuesday, November 25, 2008

For the Sake of the Song

I'm on a Townes Van Zandt bender today. Though he never had a hit in his 30+ year musical career, he was hugely influential many to country and folk artists. In fact, several artists had hits with songs written by him, including Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and Emmylou Harris, who all had country hits by covering "Pancho and Lefty." Even Bob Dylan, who has no shortage of original material to choose from, has been known to cover Van Zandt songs while on tour. Speaking of Bobby D., a great quote from Steve Earle:

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

I have a feeling that Bob would agree. And then make Earle clean his coffee table and get the hell out of his house.

For The Sake Of The Song.mp3
Flyin' Shoes.mp3
Rex's Blues.mp3
From: Rear View Mirror (1993, out of print)

1 comment:

Ramblin Man said...

Love TvZ, Pancho & Lefty was his opus, great blog Aimz, Ramblin'