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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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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 13, 2012 at 8:28pm

Agreed. Bring it, Mr. C!

These songs are everyones' to sing and play. There's enough truths in them to connect with each of us in personal ways. Only way to expose these truths, both Townes'' and your own, is to use yourself as the emotional conduit. Some of us will evoke melancholy, some will evoke pain, and some will expose the wry humorous twinkle that lurks beneath them all.

Or as Neil Young puts it, it's all one song. Sing your version.

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Permalink Reply by robert jones on June 14, 2012 at 1:27am

I'm with Oily on this one, add your take to the mix.

Heck, just listen to TVZ and you'll hear quite a bit of variety in his presentation of his songs.

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Permalink Reply by Mr.C on June 14, 2012 at 7:40am

I see if i cant slap it together with phone as a recording device not shur be album
quality

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 15, 2012 at 1:03am

Mr. C,

Album quality is whatever makes it to the album. Recorded through the phone is kewl. It will be unique.

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on June 14, 2012 at 10:17am

I've managed to record some tracks for PANCHO.

Here's a bass cigar box ukulele (3-string, fretless, oliva-box) track for Pancho.

Vocals and Dulcimer will follow...

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on June 14, 2012 at 10:43am

Sorry, had to delete - hope it works this time.

Attachments:

Pancho_BASS_Thorsten.mp3, 5.1 MB

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on June 14, 2012 at 11:21am

Here's the voice for Pancho (some harmonics to Ron's vocals)

Attachments:

Pancho_VocalHarmony_Thorsten.mp3, 5.1 MB

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on June 14, 2012 at 11:24am

... and the Dulcimer (Cigar Box, 4-string, cither tuners)

Attachments:

Pancho_CBDulcimer_Thorsten.mp3, 5.1 MB

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on June 14, 2012 at 11:27am

Here's a rough mix how it could sound so far - I won't be disappointed if you don't take all my recordings, Turtle.

Attachments:

Pancho_RoughMix_Thorsten.mp3, 5.2 MB

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 15, 2012 at 5:21pm

Turtle / Thorsten,

A couple more vocal takes for Pancho and Lefty - P&L_Oilyvocal2 recorded into iRig mic on "normal / hot" setting, sitting 5 feet away, into GarageBand on iPad. PandL_Oilyvocal3 recorded direct inot iPad mic uisng GarageBand. In the case of vocal2, the mic was set up in the middle of a 10' X 10' room. Hopefully, these aren't as saturated / distorted as the first one.

Attachments:

P&L_Oilyvocal2.mp3, 3.4 MB
PandL_Oilyvocal3.mp3, 3.4 MB

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Permalink Reply by RTZGUITARS on June 15, 2012 at 6:02pm

Has the deadline been extented if so I wanna pull these last two song and redo them.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 15, 2012 at 6:22pm

RTZ,

The deadline's still there. We've just gone past it >:-E

Sure, go ahead. I know that you want your versions to sound as good as they can, because you truly care about how these songs make you feel, and how that comes across (I could say that about every submission so far, too). Thorsten and Turtle are still working on arrangements through Monday, anyway. I've gotta redo Billy, Boney and Ma because I came up with a kewl way to play it on 12-string acoustic yesterday, with some CBG slide overlaid; also I can get some mando riffs out of the 12 that seem to work.

Looking forward to your revised versions. But there is a hard deadline coming. With over 4700 page views, the natives are getting restless...