THE DUST THAT PANCHO BIT DOWN SOUTH ENDED UP IN LEFTY'S MOUTH: The second time I saw Cowboy Junkies, a weird guy named Townes Van Zandt opened up for them. He talked way too much (much to the consternation of my really high friend sitting next to me), stopped and re-started songs, told some funny stories, and won me over. The next weekend, I went to the nearest -- and, if you must know, the crappiest -- record store and bought the only Townes CD in stock, Live & Obscure. As the title would indicate, both the artist and the album -- a collection of live tracks, too much talking, and some funny stories -- were nearly complete unknowns to me.
As it turns out, it was the perfect Townes album for me. For one thing, it was stripped down and intimate, the way I still like to hear Townes. For another, it was a great survey course. Being younger than the Willie Nelson generation, I didn't know "Pancho & Lefty," and Jay Farrar had not yet recorded "Rex's Blues." All in all, an absolutely great album of modest folk songs suffused with regret and melancholy. It's still in my top ten, if we're allowed to have compilations on that list.
After I bought L&O, I learned a bit about, and followed, the Townes story. He was born into a wealthy Texas oil family (Van Zandt, Texas is named after his family) and he struggled all his life with depression. He lived an alternately hermetic and itinerant life. I read in one magazine that he was the rightful heir to Hank Williams's Texas troubador title. I also read a very sad story in No Depression about a concert in which he was trying to preview some new material but suffered a complete breakdown, ultimately setting down his guitar and just reading the lyrics in a panic to a sympathetic audience. One day, while taking a break in a law library, I picked up a few-months-old copy of Rolling Stone and learned that he died suddenly in his deep-woods cabin with his family around him.
I like a lot of artists who don't need thanking. They are rich, popular, and surrounded by friends. Van Zandt was a bit of a loner and saw others have more success with his own very personal songs. Small music demands smaller gratitudes, I guess, so here's mine.
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