[.ca] 1973 Live At The Old Quarter

From Amazon.com:
Legendary Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt was just 29 years old when he recorded Live at the Old Quarter. The result of a five-night stand at a tiny club in Houston, what is arguably his best album was originally released on vinyl as a two-album set, and later on compact disc in a slightly abbreviated version. Tomato's reissue, however, restores the album to its full glory, complete with remastered sound and insightful liner notes by music writer Chet Flippo. Van Zandt, who died of a heart attack in 1997, sings of love and loss in a world-weary voice that begs you to pay close attention. After apologizing for the club's broken air conditioner, he kicks things off with a stirring version of "Pancho and Lefty," perhaps his most famous song. But that's just one gem among many, such as the longing "If I Needed You," the fatalistic "Don't You Take It Too Bad," the bleak "Kathleen," the bitter "Tower Song," and the touching "Tecumseh Valley." Unlike his studio albums, some of which suffer from overly busy arrangements, Live at the Old Quarter finds Van Zandt performing solo and acoustic, which only makes his emotionally honest music all the more powerful. --David Hill

Townes at his finest...:
Seems that this is arguably Townes' finest album overall. I like it more than the studio releases simply because it's just Townes and his acoustic guitar - the bare bones essentials of his amazing songs. There is simply no better way to experience Townes' music. Great for newcomers like myself, who was introduced to Townes by two friends of mine who are major singer/songwriter aficionados. The overall bar atmosphere just adds to the whole mood of the album. A warm Texas night with Townes and the bar stock clanging...doesn't get much better than that. I don't mind Townes' jokes, either, despite some other comments to the contrary.

The place to start:
I'm usually wary about live albums, since it seems strange that an artist could do his greatest work on the fly, instead of when he has all the time he needs to get things exactly right. Sure enough, Townes's voice cracks a little when straining to hit a few high notes, but for some reason it doesn't matter at all. He was usually ill served by producers who slathering his songs with strings and flutes and the rest of it. His presence is so strong when he performs that additional orchestration would only dilute what makes the songs so good. After a few listens I even started to like the missed notes and the cracks in the voice, and for the same reason I like such moments in Dylan, because these moments put the singer in front of you as a human being, and what you start to love as much as the songs is their presence. You enjoy the slips in the performance as much as the little idiosyncracies of an old friend.

Homer, Taliesin, Robert Frost... and Townes Van Zandt:
It takes a minute to understand what you're really listening to with a Townes Van Zandt album, and that's twice as true with a live disc like this one. As he speaks his songs and gets out of sync with his guitar, you wonder why he's bothering to record songs at all. And then it hits you. Van Zandt isn't a musician. He's a bard. His songs are as loaded as any poetry you'd find at a university bookshop, and much more accessible. This is true whether you're speaking of a tongue-in-cheek piece like "Fraternity Blues," a more hermetic piece like "For the Sake of the Song," or something that's crossed over into popular music like "Pancho and Lefty." He can't sing, he's only okay at his guitar, but what really brings it home for you is the poetic structure of the song lyrics. In addition to being an account of an interesting concert, this album also serves as an introduction to Texas music as a whole and a synopsis of Van Zandt's music in particular. It bears up to repeated listening, and the liner notes included in this most recent CD release are very readable and informative. It's no wonder, in considering this CD, that Willie Nelson and other progressive Texas musicians have so often covered Van Zandt's songs: they're simply beautiful to listen to and stimulating to consider.

Great Album:
I guess that I'm one of the few that actually have the vinyl version of this great recording. Not long after my wife and I began dating (early 90's) she found it in a Goodwill thrift shop, of all places. So many of his great songs are on this album, all delivered with youthful perspective and wisdom. I first heard Townes live on a Houston public radio station in around 1974. He performed Pancho and Lefty, and single handedly turned me onto what has become a lifetime of appreciation of his music and of course his lyrics. I even saw him one night at the Hole in the Wall in Austin (1978,79?). I think I was as drunk as he was. Anyway, God bless him and his music.

Could have been a Dylan but never had the voice:
During his later years Townes Van Zandt used to occasionally joke about his voice during his performances. He never really had one. And it never mattered to anyone who'd sat through his live appearances, or listened to a few of his songs on vinyl. Live at the Old Quarter is Towne's oldest recording (I'm guessing) and managed to catch him when his voice was at the prime. That's to say, it's an acquired taste. The songs make up for it. As with a lot of other of the greats, Townes' talent was in songwriting and in his method of delivery when he performed his own songs. "Pancho and Lefty" was a worthy for Willie Nelson. Listening to Townes sing it is an entirely different order of experience and magnitude. The same is true of his other songs you've heard made popular by other singers. If you've never heard Townes sing his own songs you probably won't find a better place to begin than in the Old Quarter of Houston when Townes was young. We all were.

• Announcement
• Pancho & Lefty
• Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold
• Don't You Take It Too Bad
• Two Girls
• Fraternity Blues
• If I Needed You
• Brand New Companion
• White Freight Liner Blues
• To Live Is To Fly
• She Came Around And She Touched Me
• Talking Thunderbird Blues
• Rex's Blues
• Nine Pound Hammer
• For The Sake Of The Song
• Chauffeur's Blues
• No Place To Fall
• Loretta
• Kathleen
• Why She's Acting This Way
• Cocaine Blues
• Who Do You Love
• Tower Song
• Waiting 'Round To Die
• Tecumseh Valley
• Lungs
• Only Him Or Me