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Townes Van Zandt CBG Tribute Album - Your Submissions needed

Hey, y'all!

Townes Van Zandt (1944 - 1997) was a Texas singer-songwriter-poet, whose music has touched a deep chord (pun intended) amongst many of us here at CBN. No, he's not related, except perhaps very distantly, to those other musical Van Zandt boys many of us also love. Townes was hailed, back in 1985 by none other than another gifted songwriter, Steve Earle, as "the greatest songwriter in the world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that!" Whether or not you agree with ol' Steve, there is a deep knowledge of the blues, heartache, pain and melancholy in Townes' songs. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, please visit his estate's website to get to know him better (all proceeds go to support his children and his second wife, Jeanene):

https://townesvanzandt.com/

Several of us here at CBN (myself, Uncle John, Turtlehead, and maybe some others I haven't seen or heard - I know the owner of Diamondbackguitarshop and beStillroy are also huge fans) have done videos of us playing our versions of Townes' songs, many of which came out nearly 40 years ago. We realized that the CBG may be the perfect instrument on which to reinterpret and breathe new life into Townes' songs. In fact, we've been kicking the idea around in the Comment section of Uncle John's video rendition of "Flying Shoes" for the last coupla weeks (check it out), and came up with the idea for a tribute album, using only CBGs (I know, I know: Townes never played one, to my knowledge, and I and perhaps many others of you learned "Pancho and Lefty" on a 6-stringer, but still...).

So, if you're still with me, we're looking for MP3 submissions from those who play Townes' songs, wanna try 'em on CBG, may have never heard of him but like what they hear - any and all are welcome. His catalogue is pretty deep, so I'd like to lay claim to "If I Needed You" right here, right now! (hmmm. Jesus Jones...nah) ;-) We're also looking for someone willing to create some original cover art. The idea behind this is not to make money. We wouldn't want to charge for these songs or this album. We just wanna get 'em out to the larger CBN audience. As currently envisioned, it would be of a similar nature to the free download Robert Johnson tribute album, or the various CBN Christmas albums. It is not designed to detract from, or compete with, the Blues Album Dan Sleep is currently putting together for CBN, which many of us here are also contributing to. All we ask, like the judges on American Idol, is that you make your submitted TVZ song your own.

For those who are interested, you can add MP3 files using the Attach Files or Upload Files link at the bottom left to this Discussion. Record 'em however y'all feel comfortable: lo-fi, hi-fi, wi-fi, or in-fi, doesn't matter. You can PM me here at CBN for any offline technical or otherwise discussions. I will, eventually, get back to you.

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Permalink Reply by Uncle John on May 16, 2012 at 5:03am

Thanks, Thorsten. I appreciate your efforts. If you can use it= good. If not okay too.

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Permalink Reply by Vinylhed on May 16, 2012 at 12:00pm

It's made my day to hear that you are going to be joining in on the heavenly choir. Good news indeed.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 15, 2012 at 6:06pm

Thorsten,

That's good; I've had less time at night than I thought I was going to have, so gotta do it this weekend.

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on May 15, 2012 at 6:54pm

Hi Ron, if you need more time, I'll set the deadline until June 10, okay?

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 15, 2012 at 6:58pm

Thorsten,

Your slide work is sooo clean! And tasteful, too. Great tone, great version. This ranks up there with the original. Seriously.

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on May 15, 2012 at 10:48pm

Thank you, Ron. I was trying to make it a personal version for I could never compete with the original. By the way, I started sliding because I was too lazy and also "unskilled" to put frets on the board.

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Permalink Reply by Busyhands Slim on October 18, 2012 at 4:17pm

Gorgeous recording, Thorsten!

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on May 15, 2012 at 8:58am

And here's a new mix of "Nothin" with less overdrive on the vocals - please use this one, Ron.

Attachments:

SUGIMUGI-Nothin-TownesVanZandt-Cover.mp3, 6.2 MB

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Permalink Reply by RTZGUITARS on May 15, 2012 at 9:26am

Thorsten great stuff your slide playing is so cool and works really well with Townes song. I just started building a 4 string fretless slider, i think i'll put a pickup in the bridge, i got a fishman in my epiphone that i play slide on and it work really nice. Did you get my Two Hands vocal and clap track as i pulled them down do to pride.

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on May 15, 2012 at 11:57pm

Hi. Thank you very much. I've built sliders with piezo and magnetic pickups and I personally prefer the piezo pickups (I used simple discs) because I could get more different "voices" out of the instrument (on the other hand, piezos don't work well on stage with loud amplification.

I've already added your tracks and maybe somebody might post another instrumental track.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 15, 2012 at 6:05pm

THorsten,

OK, replaced the old one with this one. This one's gorgeous.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 16, 2012 at 12:19am

Hey, y'all!

I just had a veeerrrry interesting impromptu e-mail discussion with Jinelle Boyd, the co-founder, with her husband Lucky, of MyTexasMusic.com, The Academy of Texas Music, and the Texas Music Awards. The conversation was regarding my online purchase of two of Rex (Wrecks) Bell's albums, Dog's Life and Wreck's Blues. Yes, he is that Rex Bell. The one mentioned in the intro on Live At The Old Quarter to Townes' song, "Rex's Blues," the one which Thorsten has just re-covered so admirably.

Turns out there is more to the backstory of this song. Rex played in Townes' backing band for years and years (I somehow wasn't aware of that). Townes apparently would never let him play on this song. Rex (or Wrecks, as he now goes by) has recreated The Old Quarter, as The Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe in Galveston, Texas, just 3 blocks off The Strand, in the world-famous Victorian warehouse district. Just as the original venue did in the 70's, the new venue is becoming a hotbed for singer-songwriter acts.

Here's a link to doings at the Cafe:

http://www.voiceplaces.com/old-quarter-acoustic-cafe-413-20th-st-ga...

Anyhoo, in a message to Jinelle this morning regarding downloading my purchases (we had some issues with PayPal), I mentioned the CBN TVZ tribute album to her, and asked her if, assuming I get Jeanene Van Zandt's permission, the MyTexasMusic.com website would be willing to carry the tribute album as a downloadable freebie. She responded with a resounding "YES!" Turns out, as I should have known, that she and her husband also know Jeanene Van Zandt, and offered their help in any way to make this happen.

Ain't that kewl?! So now, I'm gonna write to Jeanene, tell her what we're up to, and hopefully get her and her kids' blessing to let us release this fan appreciation project on another venue as well.