"Townes Van Zandt, best damn songwriter ever and I'll say that standing on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots."
Steve Earle was reputed to have said something like that; he has since admitted he might not have said it, but he stands by the sentiment. He named his son after Townes; that says where Townes rates in his eyes.
Townes Van Zandt was an amazing songwriter of epic proportions. That sounds trite and hackneyed as I type it, but it's the truth. His songs read like poetry because they are. He was a true wordsmith who burned bright and flew crazy like a bottle rocket, sparks trailing with a tail of smoke.
I walked into Soap Creek Saloon, a little bar/musical venue in Austin, about 1982.
I guess I was looking for something and though I wasn't sure exactly what it was, or even was quite aware that I was looking; somehow I knew it when I found it.
That night, Townes got up and played a mix of traditional blues, some Lightnin' Hopkins songs and his own originals and I had found it.
"There's two kinds of music: the blues and zip-a-dee-doo-dah."- Townes Van Zandt
