Alt-Country/Americana: Townes Van Zandt - Pancho & Lefty (Live in Austin, 1975)
Alt-Country/Americana: Townes Van Zandt - Pancho & Lefty (Live in Austin, 1975)
Casual live performance from an old documentary. A few minor lyrical tweaks for those who know the song well, but a lovely performance from probably the iconic Texas troubadour.
Man, he's one of the greatest songwriters of the era. Deeply underappreciated.
But I've never been able to get into him as a performer. He's fine on guitar, but his singing just falls flat for me, live or studio. He's not bad, his voice is pleasant enough, and he's on key and all that, it just doesn't "do" anything for me.
Which sucks, because the dude's talent as a songwriter is insane. Like, "if you needed me"? C'mon, that alone would be enough for anyone to retire proud. I want to like him as performer, and I always give him another try when someone drops a link online, or plays it irl. It just hasn't worked yet.
Yeah, that old west Texas warble (from when Fort Worth was still west Texas) is not for everybody. If you want to go with it for just one full session, do the Live at the Old Quarter album. Good sound, good point in his career, and enough patter and announcements that it feels like an organic experience, which it was, just a bit more curated than the final experience implies.
For Pancho and Lefty, there's always Merle and Willie (with a TVZ cameo in the saloon), though I find Townes Van Zandt songs tend not to benefit from "luxurious" production. If you just want the same song, or indeed, a lot of TVZ songs, through a traditionally beautiful voice but one who knew Townes and his sensibilities, Emmylou Harris is always there.
A little poking around spotify/youtube/etc., you can usually find some decent cross-genre covers too, to the extent you consider the originals country at all.
Some other good TVZ songs, maybe more outside the Western milieu:
- If I needed you (as you rightly pointed out)
- To Live is to Fly
- Dead Flowers
- Flyin' Shoes
If you're a fan of Townes Van Zandt in any capacity, Steve Earle released an excellent tribute album titled Townes in 2009. Steve dropped out of high school to seek out Townes, eventually meeting him and kindling both a mentor/protégé relationship and a friendship. Van Zandt's influence is easy to find in Earle's style, though the latter definitely went his own way. There's an authenticity to Earle's interpretation of TVZ, despite providing a markedly different listening experience.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Merle and Willie (with a TVZ cameo in the saloon)
Emmylou Harris is always there
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Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/watch?v=m9trdd3kFwc
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.