Townes Van Zandt

One of the great outlaw country singer-songwriters, Townes Van Zandt was born in Fort-Worth, Texas to a wealthy family. That upbringing afforded him some liberties, but Townes’ struggles came from his bipolar disorder, which led to a lifelong addiction to drugs and alcohol. Music found Townes early on and he would cut his teeth in his early 20’s performing in lounges and bars in Houston alongside contemporaries Lightnin’ Hopkins, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Doc Watson. The Nashville country industry would come calling soon after and he would begin recording with producer “Cowboy” Jack Clement. Recorded when he was just 25 years old, Townes’ beloved 1969 self-titled album is a collection of stripped back country songs (including the first song he ever wrote “Waiting Around to Die”) featuring just the songwriter and his guitar. Treble Magazine writes: “A self-titled album rarely means anything other than a blown deadline and a spent imagination, but for Townes Van Zandt, it’s the purest essence of his own beautiful and tragic bundle of contradictions.”

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