of Townes’ earliest performances at the Jester, in 1965, provides a glimpse of exactly what kind of ground Townes was treading in those early days.16 Townes opens his forty-five-minute set with his own “Black Crow Blues,” an early meditation on an early death: “Don’t mourn your young life away … /lower me down with a quick-said goodbye/pour in the black Texas mud.” The black crow image is tacked on in the final verse, reminiscent of Van Gogh’s Cornfield with Black Crows , portentous and somewhat pretentious as well. Townes follows this song immediately with a joke, a somewhat involved story about a nun drinking a martini, deftly clearing away the portentous and the pretentious. Another early original follows, “Badly Mistreated Blues,” a vaguely Hank Williams–inspired comedic number with the refrain “As a matter of fact, sweet mama, I’m sick of you.” The crowd seems to follow Van Zandt faithfully down the path he lays out for them, and the mood is light enough that he feels that he can bring out another serious number, “Colorado Bound,” the earliest of his Colorado songs, wherein his lover leaves him and he retreats to the purity of “some lonesome canyon” in Colorado. He again lightens the mood with “Talkin’ Karate Blues,” then follows with a traditional Carter Family song,
“Cannon Ball Blues.”
Townes is fully warmed up at this point in the set, and the recording makes clear that the crowd is as well. His self-deprecation, his humor, his dry tone, and his timing are as much responsible for this as the quality of his lyrics.
Waitin’ for the Day
67
Townes continues into the heart of his set with a Lightnin’
Hopkins song, “Hello Central.” Townes’ Hopkins-inspired guitar playing is clearly well studied and fairly well developed, although without the subtlety of his later playing. There’s a bluesy crack in his voice reminiscent of Hank Williams, illustrating clearly the mix of styles he’s attempting. Next is another early original song, the somewhat undistinguished “Louisiana Woman,” a simple, cautionary blues about the women of New Orleans (“Well, I guess I better do a dirty one,” Townes says by way of introduction). “Talkin’ Thunderbird Blues” is next (with lyrics slightly less developed than they became as Townes performed this throughout his life), then Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T For Texas),” where he shows his lack of yodeling skills. Another joke follows, this one about a gorilla catcher, again rather long and involved, then two more forgettable early originals, “Mustang Blues” (“I’m gonna take a Greyhound/leave all the drivin’ to them”) and “Talkin’ Birth Control Blues” (“real life savers … depending on how you look at it”).
Van Zandt closes with the well-known “Trouble in Mind” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” In forty-five minutes, Townes has covered his ground. His ground would expand and his roots deepen considerably over the years, but he remained centered in roughly the same place we see him this night.
In January 1966, Harris Williams Van Zandt died suddenly of a heart attack. He was fifty-two years old. His unexpected death was a shock to Townes, as it was to the rest of the family, and it seemed like a piling-on of hardships so soon after all Townes had just been through, and after all the family had just been through with Townes. The eldest son took his father’s death particularly hard, which in turn compounded his mother’s grief.
Dorothy had been looking after Townes closely since his return to Houston. She was scared for him, and she felt responsible for what had happened to him, though it almost surely had been her husband’s decision to send Townes to Galveston. But she was heartened by his return to school and by his marriage 68
A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt to Fran, with whom she shared a close relationship. Harris Van Zandt’s
“Cannon Ball Blues.”
Townes is fully warmed up at this point in the set, and the recording makes clear that the crowd is as well. His self-deprecation, his humor, his dry tone, and his timing are as much responsible for this as the quality of his lyrics.
Waitin’ for the Day
67
Townes continues into the heart of his set with a Lightnin’
Hopkins song, “Hello Central.” Townes’ Hopkins-inspired guitar playing is clearly well studied and fairly well developed, although without the subtlety of his later playing. There’s a bluesy crack in his voice reminiscent of Hank Williams, illustrating clearly the mix of styles he’s attempting. Next is another early original song, the somewhat undistinguished “Louisiana Woman,” a simple, cautionary blues about the women of New Orleans (“Well, I guess I better do a dirty one,” Townes says by way of introduction). “Talkin’ Thunderbird Blues” is next (with lyrics slightly less developed than they became as Townes performed this throughout his life), then Jimmie Rodgers’ “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T For Texas),” where he shows his lack of yodeling skills. Another joke follows, this one about a gorilla catcher, again rather long and involved, then two more forgettable early originals, “Mustang Blues” (“I’m gonna take a Greyhound/leave all the drivin’ to them”) and “Talkin’ Birth Control Blues” (“real life savers … depending on how you look at it”).
Van Zandt closes with the well-known “Trouble in Mind” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” In forty-five minutes, Townes has covered his ground. His ground would expand and his roots deepen considerably over the years, but he remained centered in roughly the same place we see him this night.
In January 1966, Harris Williams Van Zandt died suddenly of a heart attack. He was fifty-two years old. His unexpected death was a shock to Townes, as it was to the rest of the family, and it seemed like a piling-on of hardships so soon after all Townes had just been through, and after all the family had just been through with Townes. The eldest son took his father’s death particularly hard, which in turn compounded his mother’s grief.
Dorothy had been looking after Townes closely since his return to Houston. She was scared for him, and she felt responsible for what had happened to him, though it almost surely had been her husband’s decision to send Townes to Galveston. But she was heartened by his return to school and by his marriage 68
A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt to Fran, with whom she shared a close relationship. Harris Van Zandt’s
Similar Books
