Customer Reviews

Live at the Old Quarter

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Well, the customer reviews of this cd that preceded mine are all correct. This is a great live record. I already had a few live TVZ recordings, but this one far exceeds them. The quality of this recording is incredibly high and the mood is intimate throughout (hear Townes tell corny jokes while he tunes his guitar between songs). Along with the quality of this recording, I'd also like to point out its quantity. All 26 songs from the original album are included on the Charly reissue - unlike the original cd release, which dropped 6 songs. Anyone who is a fan of TVZ, or thinks they might be, MUST have this recording.

I've been a big TVZ fan now for a few years, stumbling on him thanks to Steve Earle and Son Volt. Luckily, I've been able to get copies of most of his albums since they've recently come back in print. "Live at the Old Quarter" was the last one I needed to complete my library, and the best truly was saved for last. This set captures Townes at his pinnacle. Unlike other available live offerings, this is all Townes and Townes as he was best...alone. One gets a better impression of TVZ the guitarist as well as the singer. The only downfall of this set is that he didn't play every one of his songs. Notably absent is "I'll Be Here in the Morning" and "Our Mother the Mountain". If you are a TVZ fan, you need this album.

It's probably pointless telling anyone who doesn't already know it that Townes Van Zandt was the best song writer of his generation. His songs are proof of that. But he was also a gifted and magical performer. If you never had the chance to see and hear him live, then buy this set and get some faint idea of the humor and pathos he brought to a performance. The man lived his music, and you can hear just a little of what it was like listening to him play and sing in some crowded overheated bar in Texas. Alas, this is as close as you can get to the real thing now that he's gone.

These songs are so perfect, and so real that any attempts at dissection or interpretation fail miserably. Just as I would not spit on the cross, I would not, and will not speak of this man's work as if it is something that can be bullied into cheap interpretations. Unlike Dylan (whom I love), one does need to be versed in Victorian literature or the history of American music to understand the message enclosed in Townes' work. His songs are as spare as they are relevant. "Live at the Old Quarter" was the first collection of TVZ songs I acquired. After the first listen I was hooked. I sat in my room for weeks. I quit my job, I skipped all my classes. I could not stop listening to this recording. My obssesion with this album grew to the point that I would curse the audience for ruining the tender silence at the end of each song. Townes has since become one of my all-time favorites. I've purchased and burned everything of his that I can get my grubby hands on. I love it all, deeply, but this album is closest to my heart. If any song on this album were to be played at my funeral, I would consider myself blessed.

When you posess the talent that Townes Van Zandt obvioulsy does there is no need to add anything to it. This is about as bare as music gets. One microphone, one guitar and one great songwriter. This album offers music that is as pure and honest as anything commited to vinyl or tape or laser ever has been. Many of the Van Zandt standards are here and a few covers as well. This was recorded live in 1973 in a small club in Houston. All the atmosphere is there and the listener is drawn right into the middle of the evening. An excellant album from one of history's truly great songwriters.

This album really stands our among TvZ's oeuvre. Too often his work is overproduced and therefore loses some of Townes's raw quality that very effectively conveys the essence of "American music" -- ie, blues, country, and rock and roll. He is also at the height of his artistic powers here, and his hard living life style had not yet taken its toll on his voice. His guitar playing is clearly heard on this album, and although his playing is not on the same level as a Clapton or Kottke, his arrangements are beautiful and are suffused with licks from the country blues that inspired his playing.

Can't add much to what's been said by other reviewers. This is simply the best album I've ever heard. It might be possible to write, sing, and play songs just as perfectly, but it's not possible to do so MORE perfectly. In his own way, Dylan was just as good a lyricist, but for me Townes' heart is so much bigger, and even when he dabbles in Dylan-esque abstraction, his songs have a core of meaning that I personally don't find in a lot of Dylan's stuff. Listen to the first 3 songs on disk one and think about the extraordinary range they demonstrate. Just cannot be topped.

It's truly inspired and inspiring piece of work, and a fantastic recording. You feel like you're there.

I cannot imagine how anybody with any appreciation for all types of music could not think very highly of this album. Live at the Old Quarter is the CD that made a legend out of Townes Van Zandt whose widely regarded as the greatest song writer of all time.

While listening to this CD you will feel that you are there with him in the same room. It is that authentic and intimate. I have hundreds and hundreds of CDs, over twenty by Townes, and this is the best of them all. I would highly recommend purchasing this album.

"Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'd stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that," is the often repeated quote of Steve Earle, and this is the ultimate proof. Just the legendary troubadour, his acoustic guitar and his charming wit, everybody should own this album. TvZ at his artistic peak.

Townes Van Zandt is/or should be a role model for all songwriters and artists; that's not to say that the man's well-documented personal habits should be emulated, no. His essence...the honesty that permeated his work is screaming beauty that all artists should strive to work toward and something that all who appreciate great art should be able to spot from miles away and embrace wholeheartedly. "Live At The Old Quarter" IS the definitive document of the late, great legend. It is Townes the way he was meant to be heard-live and with his songs stripped to their core. Through the duration of this double-disc classic, you get a sense that you get to know Van Zandt; you feel his warmth, his humor and his life coming through the performances. Van Zandt's songs were like that-his lyrics communicate dispatches of the human condition like few other writers ever could, and that is taking into consideration the breadth of canonical literary works, as well. Simply put, "Live At The Old Quarter" is an essential recording. All of the classics are here: "Pancho and Lefty," of course, "Tecumseh Valley," "White Freightliner Blues" and many more, and some of the older, more humorous stuff that he was doing in the 60's like "Fraternity Blues" is represented as well. Highly, highly recommended!