A Gentle Evening with Townes Van Zandt [Live]

Townes Van Zandt | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 23, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 1969
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Dualtone Music Group
• ASIN: B0000657WA
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #178,736 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Talking KKK Blues

2. Rake

3. Like A Summer's Thursday

4. Second Lover's Song

5. She Came And She Touched Me

6. Lungs

7. Tecumseh Valley

8. A Joke

9. Talking Thunderbird Wine Blues

10. Ira Hayes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening "lost" 1969 live recording, April 23, 2002

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Gentle Evening with Townes Van Zandt (Audio CD)

This recently rediscovered (and never before issued) live recording from a 1969 Carnegie Hall concert provides a rare opportunity to look back to the beginning of an artist's career and see things that might not have been evident at the time. It's akin, as the album's promotional materials allude, to viewing a previously unseen photograph of a familiar friend or family member from a time before you really knew them. It adds dimension to a period of that person's life that you may have not been present for, and thus have only learned about in retrospect. At the same time, your view of this historical artifact is colored by the perception you've developed over the years.

This performance was part of a label showcase (for Poppy Records), and the live recording was shuffled from one vault (United Artists) to another (Capitol) as labels bought one another. Eventually it was simply forgotten. Having been recorded shortly after Van Zandt's second LP was released, the songlist leans heavily on his early work. Four songs ("Tecumseh Valley" "Like a Summer's Thursday" "Second Lover's Song" and "She Came and She Touched Me") are drawn from the two released albums, and another pair ("Lungs" and "Rake") would turn up on his next two releases. Two songs ("Talking Thunderbird Wine Blues" and "The Ballad of Ira Hayes") wouldn't turn up in studio form for more than two decades, and the final original track ("Talking KKK Blues") has never before seen release on a Van Zandt album.

Though Van Zandt's catalog of self-penned tunes was smaller in 1969 than for his famous 1977 live recording, "Live at the Old Quarter (Houston, Texas)," his plain-spoken, folky style and dark humor was already in place. His half-spoken rendition of "The Ballad of Ira Hayes" is more chilling than Johnny Cash's contemporaneous cover, and his "Talking KKK Blues" is truly sardonic (including the introduction: "I figure there're more bigots here than winos."). The understated solo-acoustic setting is incredibly powerful, and Van Zandt's focus is impressive. All the more so for his young age of 25, his few years of performing experience, and the imposing Carnegie Hall setting.

Van Zandt released several live albums, including a spate of posthumous issues, but this 1969 recording offers something distinctive: a voice that hasn't yet gained the weariness of a life on the road, employed by a superbly talented songwriter whose life experience had yet to fully catch up to his preternatural wisdom. It's a truly amazing feat of vault archaeology to turn up something this significant, artistically worthy and completely forgotten on such a well-known artist.

4-1/2 stars, if Amazon allowed fractional reviews.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A glimpse into genius..., February 12, 2007

By 

E. Viladevall "EddyVee" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Gentle Evening with Townes Van Zandt (Audio CD)

This CD is striking in so many ways....1969...the height of "flower power" and political turmoil over the war....the "Summer of Love"...and along comes a soft spoken Texan with nothing but his mind, heart and guitar to elevate us and to show us a higher truth. Certainly Our Mother the Mountain, The Old Quarter etc. are Townes' masterworks but this one shows a purity, sparseness and "less is more" than even The Old Quarter. This is my favorite Townes album, only a few songs, but maybe its better that way..his picking is precise and rhytmic but not clinical......his voice at age 26 (?)is strong, controlled and has a tinge of bittersweet at times...the sound is wonderful...of course the songs themselves are timeless and pure genius in my opinion...the imagery of "She Came and She Touched me" is nothing short of magical, the lilt of "Like a Summer Thursday" is like a snowflake dancing on a breeze. Tecumseh valley of course, needs no comment. I think this is the best version. Man Townes, what a gift you had and gave to us...God bless you...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lives up to the title..., April 17, 2006

By 

B. Bowman "Double B" (Jersey, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Gentle Evening with Townes Van Zandt (Audio CD)

This CD may not contain Townes Van Zandt's best known material, but taken in the context of when this performance was recorded the song selection makes sense. Townes was 25 when this was recorded at Carnegie Hall and hadn't written many of his most famous songs yet, therefore other reviewer's complaints that he didn't play "Pancho and Lefty" can be dismissed as ludicrous. If Townes hadn't written the songs yet, he couldn't have included them in his set (!). The previously unreleased "Talking KKK Blues" is Townes at his spoken blues best. The sound on this CD is phenomenal and what is striking is the way he projected in a concert hall like Carnegie Hall. I guess this struck me because I'm so used to hearing his live recordings in tiny dives like the Old Quarter in Texas or McCabe's guitar shop in California. Townes' voice was in top form and his guitar skills were also top notch during this time period, and while his song selection for this gig was his more subdued material I don't find this to be negative. This recording was lost in the shuffle between record labels but now that its been released it serves as a valuable document of Townes' early years and his budding genius. Despite the fact that the songs here could be classified as rarities, I would go so far as to say that this would be a good introduction to Townes Van Zandt's music. His humor and personality shine throughout the performance and it is refreshing to hear him at the peak of his powers.