I especially like the version of Pancho and Lefty by Jason Isbell and Elizabeth Cook. I enjoy your newsletter and the music as part of my morning reflections
I posted this to the Greg's facebook posting of this, so I thought I'd put it here, too:
I saw one of his last shows, where he opened for Guy Clark at the Ark, in Ann Arbor. There, the stage is only a foot or so off ground, and when Van Zandt came out, he almost immediately sat down at the foot of the stage and started playing and talking with these kids who came to the show with their folks. After a while, one of the staff had to come out and ask him to start the show -- otherwise, it seemed as though he'd have been perfectly contented talking with these kids.
So he grabbed his guitar, stepped up to the mic, and said something along the lines of, "I think I'm going stark raving mad." He then does his set, a mixture of better- and lesser-known tunes, many of which he stumbled pretty mightily through and some he had to abandon altogether. During "Pancho and Lefty," he got so lost that he started reciting, rather than signing the verses.
Somehow, he summoned up enough to end with a knock-out version of "Marie." Then he sat back down at the foot of the stage, put his head in his hands, and wept.
After he was escorted from the stage, Clark came on, walked up to the mic, sighed loudly, paused for what seemed like forever -- everybody knew -- ran his hand through his hair, and said, "Well, was Townes dark enough for you?"
On the one hand, it was difficult to watch. You could not help but get the feeling he was close to the end. But I much prefer to remember the night as one where a man saw again the demons who haunted him and who, "for the sake of the song," struggled through or around them, and gave one of the grittier and gutsier performances I've been privileged to see.
I especially like the version of Pancho and Lefty by Jason Isbell and Elizabeth Cook. I enjoy your newsletter and the music as part of my morning reflections
I posted this to the Greg's facebook posting of this, so I thought I'd put it here, too:
I saw one of his last shows, where he opened for Guy Clark at the Ark, in Ann Arbor. There, the stage is only a foot or so off ground, and when Van Zandt came out, he almost immediately sat down at the foot of the stage and started playing and talking with these kids who came to the show with their folks. After a while, one of the staff had to come out and ask him to start the show -- otherwise, it seemed as though he'd have been perfectly contented talking with these kids.
So he grabbed his guitar, stepped up to the mic, and said something along the lines of, "I think I'm going stark raving mad." He then does his set, a mixture of better- and lesser-known tunes, many of which he stumbled pretty mightily through and some he had to abandon altogether. During "Pancho and Lefty," he got so lost that he started reciting, rather than signing the verses.
Somehow, he summoned up enough to end with a knock-out version of "Marie." Then he sat back down at the foot of the stage, put his head in his hands, and wept.
After he was escorted from the stage, Clark came on, walked up to the mic, sighed loudly, paused for what seemed like forever -- everybody knew -- ran his hand through his hair, and said, "Well, was Townes dark enough for you?"
On the one hand, it was difficult to watch. You could not help but get the feeling he was close to the end. But I much prefer to remember the night as one where a man saw again the demons who haunted him and who, "for the sake of the song," struggled through or around them, and gave one of the grittier and gutsier performances I've been privileged to see.
Hi Greg.
Here's a story you may appreciate about Townes and Buffalo.
https://www.sportsmensamf.org/searching-for-townes-van-zandt-in-buffalo/
Meanwhile, let's go Bonas!
EP