Customer Reviews

At My Window

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had never heard of Townes Van Zandt until three or four years ago when Rolling Stone offered four stars and a rave review for his then-new cd, "No Deeper Blue." To hear them tell it, that record was the best thing to come down the Pike in ages. I was intrigued and went looking for it. I was living in a little backwater Kentucky town and sad to say nobody had 'ol Townes in stock. I drove to Lexington and went to a cool cd store over by the University of Kentucky and found a bunch of his cds there, but they didn't have the new one. I figured, what the hell, if "No Deeper Blue" was as good as RS said, then his earlier stuff would probably be good, too.

Boy, was it ever. I picked "At My Window" at random, took it home and stuck it in my machine and was blown away.

To put it simply, Townes Van Zandt is a poet -- a great poet, the way Hank was, or Charles Bukowski was, or Bob Dylan was when he was writing the good stuff. I don't mean that TVZ sounds like any of these guys. I just mean that his words are honest and pure and powerful in the same way that theirs are. He writes lyrics from his heart and his gut and they stay with you for a very long time after you hear them. They resonate.

I finally did get hold of a copy of "No Deeper Blue" in a music store in Boulder. Rolling Stone was right. It's a great album. Both of these cds hold a place of honor on my shelf.

This is one of my favorite albums of all time. It's a mellow one to be certain, but highly invigorating nonetheless.
Having heard Townes Van Zandt at length by chance - I had a friend with all original vinyl albums from the 70's and I sat and listened to all of them during a weekend stay - I went and got this, which I hadn't heard yet. While other reviewers are entitled to their opinion, I don't think the production on this album is marred - I think it's very restrained and quite well done. It's all acoustic instruments with some tasteful horn and string arrangements in a few spots, far more understated than they had been on the early Townes records (including For The Sake of The Song). This album is class, and practically every song is a mini masterpiece. While the amazon review mentions that Townes re-recorded old songs for the album, only one song is actually re-recorded - For The Sake Of The Song - and I think it's an improvement over the original, which suffered from overproduction in its original form.
Townes was one of the most gifted songwriters the USA has ever produced, and his catalogue is well worth investigating. This album (or perhaps Live at the Old Quarter) would not be a bad place to begin your foray into this man's career. Thanks Townes, for writing such excellent material and treating it right.

This CD is one of the best from Townes in my opinion, and that's saying a lot. From beginning to end, virtually every song on this CD is alone worth the price of the CD. And although a lot of folks argue different viewpoints on the varying production qualities of Townes' recordings, to me this one is the best produced. Not too sparse, not overdone, but balanced very well between the excellent lyric representation and backing music. Even as a fan of many different styles of music, I highly, highly recommend it.

Well, tarnishing Townes' first album, For the Sake of the Song, with overproduction and inappropriate arrangements was not enough for Cowboy Jack. No, he had to do the same thing, although in a little different manner, with different instruments, to At My Window. Before, it was mostly drums and percussion. This time Clement enlists the aide of the sax and flute and uses them in very distasteful arrangements. Almost every song after track 3 is marred. Clement should have learned his lesson the first time-Townes's songs should stand on their own. However, the poor production does not completely destroy the album and Townes songs still shine, albeit with just a little less lustre. While I wouldn't use this album to initate a new TVZ fan, it is still a welcome addition to the TVZ catalogue.

Townes Van Zandt was one of the greatest poets who ever lived ........... the fact that he could set his magical words to music and play superb guitar and deliver their combined message in a haunting voice .... makes him totally unique among American folk artists. GET THIS CD! (and every other one as well)

This is darn near Townes' finest, and that's saying a lot. Mellow, easygoing folk/country music coupled with Townes' lyrical magic and terrific recording quality - the result is beautiful music that deepens with each listen, possibly his most consistent recording. Get this and "Texas Troubadour" and "Live at the Old Quarter" from Amazon UK (www.amazon.co.uk), and you'll have a TVZ collection to be envied.

Alternate version of "At My Window" is excellent and "Buckskin Stallion Blues" is classic. "Snowin on Raton" is always good and it features some nice mandolin playing. Overall a pretty good album for Townes and worth the small price. Not mandatory but a nice addition to your TVZ collection.

When I first heard this in the eighties I felt delight at the purity of the songwriting, mixed with some sense of something being oddly different about this album from the others of his that I owned. It wasn't simply the flute, as I'd heard that on Live And Obscure, but something else.
I had no idea at the time that it was the first of his two post-seventies studio albums made after a decade or so long break from recording either, although this of course now explains it.
It was on CD, not vinyl like the earlier records, and seemed to be more consciously written and produced. Townes said in an interview, that can be watched on the fascinating documentary Be Here To Love Me, that he only wrote a new song (in his later period) when he really felt he had something to say and he was never satisfied until he had perfected every single note and word of that song. Consequently he produced very little compared to what he did in his earlier days, which are generally acknowledged to be his greatest recordings, at least in terms of consistency.
And, ultimately, consistency seems to be the one really noticeable flaw. It is kind of consistent in that they all sound quite conservatively crafted, like a finely wrought Guy Clark album (not a terrible thing in itself) and yet only the first five or six songs really take off. One is a remake (For The Sake Of The Song), another has the exact same tune as a song released earlier (Buckskin Stallion Blues, which sounds just like Brother Flower off Flying Shoes) and two were recorded in earlier versions during the seventies (Buckskin Stallion Blues and At My Window). That leaves possibly only three songs worth getting. Out of these three tracks the best are Snowing On Raton (a true beauty) and Ain't Leaving Your Love (similar in sound to Where I Lead Me off Delta Momma Blues).
Compared to anything else made during the eighties though, this CD easily rates four out of five stars.