Celebration of Townes Van Zandt

[Tony]

Most of my favourite country singers on this show.


Guy Clark, Peter Rowan, Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith, Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Jack Clement, John T. Van Zandt


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1M8p-HnHfg

[Kush]

Thanks Tony for the link to the complete concert. I have seen the video of this concert before but not in recent years so it was good to watch it again. They were all outstanding performances but if I had to pick one it would be the duet on Tecumseh Valley by Nanci Griffith and James Hooker.


She turned to whorin'
Out on the streets
with all the lust inside her
and it was many a man
returned again
to lay himself beside her

They found her down
'neath the stairs
that led to Gypsy Sally's
in her hand when she died
was a note that cried
fare thee well... Tecumseh valley

[Tony]

Hello Kush,

I am glad you liked it. In fact I thought of you and Steven when I first saw it. It has not been on YouTube very long and I anticipate it will get a lot of hits.

[Kush]

Reposting this clip of rural Americana in the 70s around the outskirts of Austin...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K84dAXpgmHA

[Steven]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the link; I probably had not seen the entire celebration event until I watched it as a result of your post.
Great assemblage of talent.

[Steven]

Reposting this clip of rural Americana in the 70s around the outskirts of Austin...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K84dAXpgmHA

Hi Kush,

Have seen this clip many times (and the entire movie once). Glad your link provided an opportunity to watch
it again. The elderly guy crying is affecting and seeing this works as kind of an inverse laugh track, amplifying the emotional response of viewers. I suspect that it was known in advance that he'd have the response he did to the song. Very appreciative that the clip included the opportunity to learn a bit about the man; would like to know more. Yes,
rural Americana it was, a hardscrabble part of it. Many don't know that what is portrayed in the clip is at sharp contrast
to the early life of Townes. He came from a well-off family of prominence.

P.S. The line breaks above are different on my laptop and tablet screens. If you see improper line breaks, it's because of
a formatting error.

[Kush]

Hi Steven,

I read an interview with the director of that documentary, James Szalapski who said that that particular moment in the film was something no one was prepared for - "you cannot prepare for such a moment but if it happens, as a film maker , you hope you are ready to capture it" (I am paraphrasing).

Yes TVZ was born to wealth and privilege - although I know the general sketch of his life, I have not read any biography so I wonder what events precipitated his turning his back to all of that.

Here is a clip of Steve Earle talking about the film and specifically the scenes with TVZ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKF9bem-NE4

and here is Pancho and Lefty from that same session , at the end of which the girl in the video requests him to play Waitin around to Die...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zprRZ2wFQD4

[Tony]

Thank you for those links, Kush and Steven. It is amazing how so many of these singers seem to be connected to each other.