money.” Townes became “kind of the house act” at Sand Mountain, opening shows for many of the more well-known acts that passed through, Fran recalls. “That’s when he and Guy Clark got real close.” Clark had in fact just returned from training for the Peace Corps: “I had a brief fling at it, but I didn’t actually go anywhere. I just did the training program,” Clark remembers.13
Waitin’ for the Day
63
“We both started writing about the same time,” Clark says.
“But Townes just did it in a way that raised it to a level of art, or poetry, whatever you want to call it, rather than just rhym-ing ‘moon, June, and spoon.’” While Bob Dylan’s writing was inspiring folk musicians everywhere, Townes’ inspiration was more direct. “Townes was right there,” Clark stresses, “and while you couldn’t be Townes or write like Townes, you could come from the same place artistically.”
Darryl Harris was another musician playing the folk clubs of Houston at the time. He had attended Milbey High School in Houston with Fran. “I was a guitar player,” Harris recollects. “I played some kind of schlocky flamenco and classical stuff. I was playing at the Jester Lounge, and I went out to the Jester one night, and Townes was playing there. He was with Fran, so that’s really how we met.… And when Townes and I met, we were both going to the University of Houston, so we would then run into each other occasionally on campus. We’d run into each other and then we’d sort of talk each other into not going to class.”
Harris recalls, “Townes and Guy were probably the most popular guys who played there, but most of the people there were pretty good. Although when I first saw Townes out at the Jester, he was pretty awful, really; pretty drunk. The stuff he was playing made me kind of wonder. Sometimes you hear people play and you wonder how they could ever imagine it being possible to have any kind of career in music. That was really sort of my response the first time I ever heard him.”14
Another singer on the scene at the Jester and Sand Mountain, who was writing his own songs, was Jerry Jeff Walker. Townes was impressed and inspired by Walker’s songwriting; Fran was less enthusiastic. “Jerry Jeff was over at our apartment one day,”
she recalls. “He was from New York, and back then there wasn’t a lot of mixture of the South and the North. Jerry Jeff had such a different sense of etiquette; he really had none.” She recalls one day when “He was sitting at our dining room table eating, slumped over, not talking to anybody, and he had his hat on, and Townes’ mom and dad came over,” she says. “Jerry Jeff 64
A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt didn’t stand up, didn’t take his hat off, didn’t even look up. So Townes’ dad wouldn’t let his mother sit down, and he called Townes outside and said, ‘This guy has insulted your mother.
How could you allow that to happen?’ That is the sense of honoring women that Townes was brought up with.… [Townes’ parents] always wanted to hear Townes sing, but if Jerry Jeff was on the bill too, they wouldn’t come.”
Fran remembers clearly that it was also during this time that Townes wrote the first few batches of the songs that would make up his lasting body of work. “In the first apartment we lived in there were two walk-in closets,” she says. “The little one off the bathroom he decorated with posters, music posters, and made into his own little studio. There was just enough room to have a chair and a little amplifier and a little tape recorder, and a little table. You had to step in sideways to be able to sit down. That is where he started writing his first songs. He loved going in there; he would shut the door and stay there for hours.” They had a small antique pump organ in their apartment, and Fran would often help Townes write out his music. “I would sound it out [on the organ] and write it because I
Waitin’ for the Day
63
“We both started writing about the same time,” Clark says.
“But Townes just did it in a way that raised it to a level of art, or poetry, whatever you want to call it, rather than just rhym-ing ‘moon, June, and spoon.’” While Bob Dylan’s writing was inspiring folk musicians everywhere, Townes’ inspiration was more direct. “Townes was right there,” Clark stresses, “and while you couldn’t be Townes or write like Townes, you could come from the same place artistically.”
Darryl Harris was another musician playing the folk clubs of Houston at the time. He had attended Milbey High School in Houston with Fran. “I was a guitar player,” Harris recollects. “I played some kind of schlocky flamenco and classical stuff. I was playing at the Jester Lounge, and I went out to the Jester one night, and Townes was playing there. He was with Fran, so that’s really how we met.… And when Townes and I met, we were both going to the University of Houston, so we would then run into each other occasionally on campus. We’d run into each other and then we’d sort of talk each other into not going to class.”
Harris recalls, “Townes and Guy were probably the most popular guys who played there, but most of the people there were pretty good. Although when I first saw Townes out at the Jester, he was pretty awful, really; pretty drunk. The stuff he was playing made me kind of wonder. Sometimes you hear people play and you wonder how they could ever imagine it being possible to have any kind of career in music. That was really sort of my response the first time I ever heard him.”14
Another singer on the scene at the Jester and Sand Mountain, who was writing his own songs, was Jerry Jeff Walker. Townes was impressed and inspired by Walker’s songwriting; Fran was less enthusiastic. “Jerry Jeff was over at our apartment one day,”
she recalls. “He was from New York, and back then there wasn’t a lot of mixture of the South and the North. Jerry Jeff had such a different sense of etiquette; he really had none.” She recalls one day when “He was sitting at our dining room table eating, slumped over, not talking to anybody, and he had his hat on, and Townes’ mom and dad came over,” she says. “Jerry Jeff 64
A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt didn’t stand up, didn’t take his hat off, didn’t even look up. So Townes’ dad wouldn’t let his mother sit down, and he called Townes outside and said, ‘This guy has insulted your mother.
How could you allow that to happen?’ That is the sense of honoring women that Townes was brought up with.… [Townes’ parents] always wanted to hear Townes sing, but if Jerry Jeff was on the bill too, they wouldn’t come.”
Fran remembers clearly that it was also during this time that Townes wrote the first few batches of the songs that would make up his lasting body of work. “In the first apartment we lived in there were two walk-in closets,” she says. “The little one off the bathroom he decorated with posters, music posters, and made into his own little studio. There was just enough room to have a chair and a little amplifier and a little tape recorder, and a little table. You had to step in sideways to be able to sit down. That is where he started writing his first songs. He loved going in there; he would shut the door and stay there for hours.” They had a small antique pump organ in their apartment, and Fran would often help Townes write out his music. “I would sound it out [on the organ] and write it because I
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