Townes Van Zandt CD

Recorded at Bradley's Barn, Nashville, Tennesee.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
On his third album, Townes Van Zandt recut three crucial tracks from his debut album, "For The Sake Of The Song," "Waiting Around To Die," and "I'll Be Here In The Morning." It was some indication of the obscurity in which he remained enveloped, but no indication of the quality of his work. (Actually, Van Zandt rerecorded songs from his first album on his later ones because he disliked the earlier recordings.) As usual, his closely observed lyrics touched on desperate themes, notably in tbe mining ballad "Lungs," but they were still highly poetic, especially the album-closing "None But The Rain," which reflected on a failed relationship. Van Zandt's finger-picking was augmented by spare arrangements, usually featuring one added instrument for color, such as a fiddle or flute. (Originally released by Poppy Records in 1969, Townes Van Zandt was reissued by Tomato Records in 1989.) ~ William Ruhlmann
Van Zandt followed 1969's landmark OUR MOTHER THE MOUNTAIN a year later with this equally definitive album. The latter's big production is scaled down considerably here, and the focus is on a much more subdued, folky feel. The gentle acoustic fingerpicking doesn't obscure the sharply observed fatalism of "None But the Rain" or the ominous "Waiting Around to Die," one of Townes' best (and not coincidentally, darkest) compositions.
There are some colorfully scripted Dylanesque epics in the mold of OUR MOTHER's "Why She's Acting This Way" ("For the Sake of the Song" and "Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel," the latter as close to Dylan's great "To Ramona" as anyone will ever get). "Lungs," covered almost 30 years later by Lyle Lovett, is an unforgettably desperate, poetic plea for connection and redemption, whose sheer bleakness would warrant a warning sticker were it not redeemed by the warm, reassuring country waltz "Don't Take It Too Bad."