ABOUT

“One day God touched me on the shoulder and said… “SON, WRITE THESE SONGS.”

So I did.” - Townes Van Zandt

In a hundred years, the coffee house may be only a memory old men tell their grandchildren about. But wherever folk singers gather in the year 2068, a few gifted songwriters of this century will continue to live. Perhaps the 21st century musicians will sit and talk about the troubled times of Bob Dylan; the heartaches of Hank Williams and Don Gibson; the imagination of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. These were the men that opened doors. John Townes Van Zandt was one that walked through.

Townes Van Zandt, the man. He’ll be remembered. They’ll talk about what he was thinking while his footsteps rang in his ears as he walked down the empty winter Denver streets. What he learned in that basement by lending a compassionate ear to a man who was more than just a janitor. What he heard in those songs, ringing off the black walls of back rooms of Austin and Oklahoma City. What he got out of swapping stories in a shack outside of Houston with an old man who has become a legend to blues lovers all over the world.

Townes Van Zandt. The man. A compulsive reader always seeking knowledge- out of self-defense if for no other reason. For in order to survive, he must understand himself and those around him.

Townes Van Zandt. The man. Always searching out some new truth (or an old truth that had been swept under the rug in an old house and forgotten).  Because the tools of a writer are truths.  And truth is knowledge. And knowledge is love.

And a writer like Townes writes songs not only of love between man and woman, but between man and man, and man and God. Townes Van Zandt. The man. My friend.          

—Mickey Newbury

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“Townes Van Zandt is as fine a song-poet as America has produced.” Robert Palmer - The New York Times

“Townes Van Zandt is a troubadour, a wandering bard, the closest thing we have to Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams. Like Woody and Hank, this Texan exists beyond fashion. His songs could have been set down in the 1890s by a lonesome cowboy, in the 20s by an Appalachian tunesmith or by a Depression-era Dust Bowl balladeer and they probably will be sung well into the digital age.” Tony Sherman - People Magazine

“Van Zandt, the Van Gogh of lyrics.”     Gerry Wood - Billboard

“Trouble had a way of finding Van Zandt, who was one of the greatest songwriters of our time. It came to him for the last time on New Years Day. The darkness of Van Zandt’s vision, paradoxically, only deepened his appreciation of life’s pleasures. Beautiful women and nature’s glories and loyal friends floated through his lyrics and his life.” Anthony DeCurtis - Rolling Stone