#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

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.

6 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Uncle John on May 16, 2012 at 1:14am

Excellentio!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on May 16, 2012 at 4:10am

That sounds almost perfect, Ron.

There's an Austrian singer/songwriter called Ed Schnabl who used to play in our village a few years ago and said that he had played in Townes' backing band when he had been living in the States. I wonder if anybody has ever heard of him outside Austria.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Vinylhed on May 16, 2012 at 12:13pm

Marvellous! Fingers crossed.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cris Portillo Jr. on May 16, 2012 at 8:50am

Hey guys I know i'm jumping on this late but would I still be able to submit a cover of "Fare thee well, Miss carousel"?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 16, 2012 at 9:25am

Cris,

Bring it! Deadline is June 15 or thereabouts. Post your mp3 to this Discussion. Glad to have you contribute.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 16, 2012 at 9:40am

Well, I'll be damned! Looks like we're not the only ones to have the idea of a TVZ tribute album - but ours is still the only one, to my knowledge, featuring CBGs:

http://www.forthesakeofthesong.co.uk/news.html

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Vinylhed on May 16, 2012 at 12:20pm

I've got a copy of the first album, but I had no idea there was a second. I'll have to check it out, thanks for bringing it to my attention, Ron.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by RTZGUITARS on May 16, 2012 at 6:40pm

Thorsten, What instruments could you use for the Church song. I,m workin on a track with acoustic cbg sounds crappy. It sound o.k. when i don,t fallow the turnaround. I got a mando not a cbm, E is not my best key, I can make a Tampourine cbt that might work. I can't make a cbb3 cigar box Hammond B3 sorry. Post what you think might work for you and someome might have something cool. Your track is way good and sould be out front.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on May 17, 2012 at 1:20am

RTZ (still don't know your real name), I just thought about a little solo part, a short lick of only a few seconds. Mando is cool. And if an instrument ist not made of cigar boxes I wouldn't mind, would you or any other?

I could record a lot of tracks more (we have many instruments, piano, guitars, mando, flutes, trombone, accordeon etc. at home) but I thought it was cooler if other CBNmembers played on the song as well.

For me it's also okay if there'S only clapping and my slide track.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Vinylhed on May 17, 2012 at 8:53am

I was playing around last night with adding a little something to your track, but everything I came up with just seemed to ruin your fine work. So, I'll leave the embellishments to someone else.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by robert jones on May 17, 2012 at 1:43am

Gah!!! This is worse than waiting for Christmas as a kid.

So uh, any thought to a Blaze Foley tribute collection as a companion compilation? I mean considering that TVZ and Blaze Foley go together like biscuits and gravy.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 17, 2012 at 8:45am

robert,

We-ell, if you wanna spearhead such an effort, then I'm certainly all ears. Blaze, Townes and Wrecks, for them as doesn't know, were closer than any variant of peas in a pod you could name.

Tell ya what, if you have an itch to do a coupla Blaze's tunes, I might consider putting them on as Bonus tracks. Whadda y'all think, Van Zandters?