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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 Vinylhed on April 8, 2012 at 12:35am

I've got a copy of "Be Here To Love Me" and it's great. But for my money, the film "Heartworn Highways" is the one to go for. It's got amazing performances from Townes, Guy Clark, Larry Jon Wilson and a young Steve Earle.

I actually love the production of the early albums. I don't think the arrangements are typically Nashville, they're far too gothic for "Music City". But I would agree that Townes alone with a guitar is pure magic.

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Permalink Reply by Uncle John on April 8, 2012 at 12:52am

It was 'Be Here To Love Me' that we saw. Excellent. Will now try to locate 'Heartworn Highways'. Thanks, Vinyl.

Well, I love the more produced sound on the double album set we just received too. I had just expected more of the man and his guitar. And boy, could he play. Our new to us album is 'Legend: The Very Best Of Townes Van Zandt'. 46 songs. The odd kicker on this is that 6 of these song are duets--- done after Towne's death. This includes Willie Nelson on Marie, Freddie Fender on Pancho, and Emmy Lou on If I Needed You. - I think they did a good job on these. Especially Freddie Fender.

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Permalink Reply by Vinylhed on April 8, 2012 at 10:37am

I love Freddy Fender! Maybe next we could sort out a Freddy Fender CBG tribute album?

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 8, 2012 at 8:06pm

Before the next tear drop falls...

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Permalink Reply by turtlehead on April 7, 2012 at 7:13am

Thanks a lot Oliy. I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

Re: Fruity Loops. The free demo won't let you record directly into it or save anything. It has hundreds of drum samples and a sequencer. So I started with the drum track and exported it to Audacity, then recorded the guitar and vocals. Then I reimported it back to Fruity Loops. There are a bunch of mixing/eq/mastering presets that make it easy to get a polished sound. Much more user friendly than the effects in Audacity. I'm considering purchasing the cheapest version for $49 which I think will let you save the work as you go, but still doesn't allow direct recording.

There is a learning curve to figuring out the program, but I'd be happy to walk through the steps I did if you or anyone else is interested.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 7, 2012 at 9:40pm

Hey, y'all,

One possible mockup for the album cover (comments?):

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Permalink Reply by Uncle John on April 8, 2012 at 2:45am

Cover looks good, Ron. I like the tombstone and hand on the cbg box.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 7, 2012 at 11:45pm

Hey, y'all,

Me and Townes seem to be workin' together today: first a potential album cover, now a quick look through one of the archival fan sites revealed this gem:

http://ippc2.orst.edu/coopl/tvztabs.html

Should help everyone with learning some new tunes for the album, if so inclined.

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Permalink Reply by turtlehead on April 8, 2012 at 3:52am

Looking good Oily and thanks for the link. Been looking for something like that. I need to watch Be Here to Love me again and Heartworn Highways for the first time.