Townes Van Zandt
A country and folk-blues singer and guitarist, Van Zandt is a native Texan and great grandson of one of the original settlers who founded Fort Worth in the mid-19th Century. The son of a prominent oil family, Townes turned his back on financial security to pursue the beatnik life in Houston. First thumbing his way through cover versions, his acoustic sets later graced the Jester Lounge and other venues where his ‘bawdy bar-room ballads’ were first performed. Although little-known outside of a cult country rock following, many of his songs are better publicized by the covers afforded them by Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Don Gibson and Willie Nelson. This gave songs such as Pancho And Lefty and If I Needed You the chance to rise to the top of the country charts. Much of Van Zandt's material was not released in the UK until the late '70s, though his recording career actually began with FOR THE SAKE OF A SONG, released in the US in 1968. His media awareness belies the debt many artists, including the Cowboy Junkies and Go-Betweens, profess to owing him. Steve Earle went further: ‘Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that’. Interest is still alive as the recent re-issue of the LIVE AND OBSCURE (albeit re-titled PANCHO AND LEFTY) on Edsel proves. Van Zandt continues to live a reclusive life in a cabin in Tennessee, recording occasionally purely for the chance to 'get the songs down for posterity'.