Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Billy Joe Shaver, and Ray Wylie Hubbard, among others. Van Zandt is the first posthumous honoree. But he’ll be there in spirit. Although he was Texan by birth, from an esteemed Lone Star family—Van Zandt County, east of Dallas, was named for them— Townes Van Zandt spent several formative years living and touring in Colorado (and writing songs about the place, too: “Snowin’ On Raton,” “Colorado Girl,” and “Columbine”). “It’s neat that this event is happening in Colorado,” said J.T., who will be making his first MusicFest appearance. “My dad lived in Boulder as a child, and then he moved back to go to college and met my mom at C.U. At different times, he went up and worked as a wrangler in Gunnison and Crested Butte. Although we have a deep Texas heritage, Colorado is probably our favorite state. To have the event take place in Colorado just adds a new layer of satisfaction.” And, J.T. added, his dad would have been tickled by the attention. “Townes was a very modest and humble guy, so any time that anyone, including the general public, but also established music organizations, would honor him, he was always deeply touched by that sort of recognition." “I’ve seen him being approached by fans after his shows and I know that he was very honored whenever people wanted to celebrate his music. He would be extremely proud and honored by this event.”
kinson continued, “But I feel that 50 years from now he will be as widely known everywhere as he is here (in Austin), as being in the league of Dylan and Hank and Woody Guthrie.”
Photo by John Lomax III
Part of the pleasure of listening to Van Zandt is savoring the unalloyed affection he had for words and images. Guy Clark—no slouch as a songwriter himself— recalled that when he first encountered Van Zandt and lines like “The clouds didn’t look like cotton/They didn’t even look like clouds,” he was floored. And not a little bit intimidated. Even a brief survey of Van Zandt’s body of work reveals small, gemlike artifacts that haunt long after first hearing: “There ain’t no dark til something shines”…“Days up and down they come/Like rain on a conga drum”… “The dust that Pancho bit down south/Ended up in Lefty’s mouth”…“It won’t be long before I’ll be tying on my flying shoes.”
Ask any performer at MusicFest for a favorite TVZ song or story, and every one of them could probably pull one out of his or her pocket. Van Zandt’s influence went that deep and wide.
Townes Van Zandt, Margaret "Mimi" Lomax (John Lomax's mom), Toni & Lightnin' Hopkins in Lomax's backyard on Vanderbilt St.
Journalist Brian T. Atkinson, who last year compiled the oral history I’ll Be Here In the Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt, said: “Music never sounded the same to me since I discovered him. Since then, it’s been everybody else and Townes. Even people like Guy Clark and Paul Simon and other personal favorites who are the pinnacle of songwriting to me—Townes is way above. He’s something else. “I don’t want to make any great Steve Earle-like pronouncements (Earle famously ranked Van Zandt above Bob Dylan),” At-
Townes & Caddo Parish Studdard III at Liberty Hall, 1971.
Photo by John Lomax III
Guy Clark & Townes Van Zandt, La Zona Rosa, Austin, Texas, 1993. Photo by John T. Davis
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