Townes Van Zandt
Album: The Nashville Sessions
Label: Charly
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.townesvanzandt.com/

I first discovered the wonderful songwriting of Townes Van Zandt through Emmylou Harris who recorded his classic "Pancho and Lefty" on her 1977 album "Luxury Liner". I was so taken with the enigmatic lyrics of this mysterious tale, loosely based on the life and death of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, that I rushed out to buy Townes' original version which appears on his 1972 album, the ironically titled "The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt". This was quickly followed by purchases of Townes' other early albums : "For The Sake Of The Song"; "Our Mother The Mountain"; "Townes Van Zandt";"Delta Momma Blues"; "High, Low and In Between" and "Flying Shoes" [all now available as a box set called "Townes Van Zandt- Texas Troubadour", a snip at a mere £15.00].

I was indeed fortunate to see Townes play live on three occasions. The first was an "In Concert"show and interview for Spencer Leigh's BBC Radio Merseyside programme in 1989; the second was on Townes' legendary 1991 tour with Guy Clark, John Stewart and Peter Rowan [now that was a line-up to be reckoned with !] and the last time I saw Townes was in 1994 at Southport Arts Centre [now The Atkinson].

Sadly, Townes died on January 1st 1997 at the age of 52, after a lifetime of excess. Coincidentally, the similarly troubled Hank Williams died on the same date 44 years earlier.

Townes' death robbed America of one of its greatest songwriters. Steve Earle is famously quoted as saying "Townes is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table and say that".

In early 1974, Townes went to "Cowboy" Jack Clements' studio in Nashville to record the follow up to "The Late Great Townes Van Zandt". Everything appeared to be going well ;Townes had a bunch of great new songs and he was accompanied by some of Nashville's top session musicians under the direction of Chuck Cochran. This album could have been Townes' shot at the big time.

However, not for the first time in Townes' life [or the last], things went badly wrong. A dispute between Townes' manager/producer Kevin Eggers and studio owner Jack Clements over payments for the use of the studio resulted in the album [to be known as "Seven Come Eleven"] not being released. The tapes gathered dust until 1993, when they were finally released as "The Nashville Sessions".

Now, Charly Records have released a restored and digitally remastered edition of "The Nashville Sessions", taken from the original tapes.

I must say that this is a most welcome release, as it makes available Townes' seventh album which captures him at the peak of his powers in the mid-1970's and includes some of his best songs, such as "Rex's Blues", "No Place To Fall", "White Freight Liner Blues" and "Loretta".

"The Nashville Sessions" also brings to light some of Townes' least-known songs. When it was eventually released in 1993, Townes himself said that he had forgotten writing some of them.

The album contains some exemplary songwriting. Several of the songs refer to Townes' restless troubadour spirit. For example, in "Buckskin Stallion Blues"he yearns to tame the stallion and ride away or to get a flying schooner and sail into the light of day. On the superb bluegrass of "White Freight Liner", he wants to get out on the highway and go to Mexico where "they treat you kind". In "Pueblo Waltz", Townes dreams of moving to Tennessee to see Susanna and Guy [Clark].

One of Townes' best [and best known] songs is "No Place To Fall" in which he acknowledges his own failings-his unreliability and depressive nature - "I'm not much of a lover it's true, I'm here then I'm gone and I'm forever blue". Townes seeks reassurance that his lover would take him in if he had nowhere to lay down.

"Loretta" is one of my favourite of Townes' songs, in which he describes his ideal woman who "loves me like I want her to" and who is there when he wants her. His fantasy is for her to ask him to "put his guitar on, have a little shot of booze and play a blue and wailin' song"!

Another slightly surreal song is "Two Girls" in which Townes has two girls "one's in heaven, one's below, one I love with all my heart and one I do not know" but also refers to swimming holes full of rum, ugly horses and Beaumont being full of penguins. Bob Dylan eat your heart out!

The album closes with the uncharacteristically jolly and upbeat "Upon My Soul", a gospel number in which Townes asks Jesus to be given "peace eternally upon my free and joyous soul".

I detect a hint of irony here, bearing in mind Townes' troubled life.

In conclusion, this is a superb album which provides the "missing link" in Townes' rich discography. It is a great pity that the original album was not released in 1974 as it could have changed the course of Townes' life and career, who knows? Nevertheless, it stands as a fine tribute to one of America's finest singer songwriters.

Peter Cowley