Townes Van Zandt was an iconic American songwriter whose lyrics captured the landscape of the heart and soul of Americana.

Substance abuse issues compounded by hard luck saw him spend a major portion of his life playing at smaller joints right up until his early death at 52. ‘Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas’ ranks with the very best of his concert albums. Recorded in July1973, the album was finally released in 1977.

Performing across five nights in July 1973 in an 11X 38-foot room in a Houston saloon in front of about a hundred customers, Van Zandt recorded the seminal work of his career. The almost-hellish setting of the scene was captured quite beautifully by producer Earl Willis in the album’s liner notes. “One could hardly find room for a deep breath, much less get to the restrooms upstairs, or to the ‘toking area’ on the roof,” he wrote. “If you know Houston in July, then you have an idea how hot and humid it was in that room, and leaving the door open did little good, except perhaps to improve the clarity of the sound of passing buses from the nearby bus station".

The album is simple and spare and captures Van Zandt in a solo performance with just his acoustic guitar for company with his audience clearly caught up in the spell of these songs. The set features 26 songs, all originals except for covers of Cocaine Blues, Nine Pound Hammer, and Who Do You Love, . Van Zandt also gives his lighter side an airing here, occasionally cracking jokes and offering a pair of funny talking blues numbers, Talking Thunderbird Blues and Fraternity Blues.

The album opens with an announcement about bathrooms, pool tables, and cigarette machines. Van Zandt then takes the stage, greeted by a small but enthusiastic clatter of applause. He starts to introduce the song Pancho And Lefty, then stops himself to apologize for the club’s lack of air conditioning before picking out the first few notes on his guitar. In an instant the formerly playful, irreverent atmosphere is cut short by some of the most bewitching chord melodies and vocals ever captured on tape.

At the Old Quarter with just his dry voice and guitar, Van Zandt gives the story a level of sparseness and emotional depth of feeling so lacking on the original version. His tired and boozy voice completely embodies the actual sense of loss for Pancho’s betrayal and demise….“Living on the road my friend / was gonna keep you free and clean / now you wear your skin like iron / and your breath’s as hard as kerosene.” Townes chose these words to describe the down-and-out bandit Pancho, but he’s really imparting a little something about himself. To know that the man met his own untimely end, likewise a victim of drugs and booze, is as sad as it is unsurprising; even on laid back, jokey tracks like Talking Thunderbird Blues, the singer’s voice betrays a plaintive fatalism.

The entirety of Live At The Old Quarter is styled in this manner. Songs that sounded too polished in the studio are allowed to rust over. To Live Is To Fly is another track that carries particular affectation, as is For The Sake Of The Song and If I Needed You.

In the clearest sense, the album works as a precursor to the rash of unplugged records that came to follow two decades later. Over these 26 songs, Van Zandt takes the listener on a journey of love and loss, of good times and friends remembered, of key influences and eclectic genres.

Need I say more ? Give this album a listen and you’ll appreciate the magic of the voice of the man .

Release Date – 1977

Duration : 92:40

Genre : Country, Country Blues, Texas Blues

Label – Tomato

Rating : *****

Reviewed by Anil Sukhia

Anil Sukhia grew up in the 60s, listening from the tender age of 9 to the music of the Rolling Stones (Aftermath) and the Beatles (Abbey Road) with dollops of Chris Barber, Nat King Cole, Pat Boone and Eartha Kitt thrown in the mix on his father's (another major music buff) cassette player .He's been a diehard muzak addict ever since, with taste ranging from rock and blues to jazz. He currently has a collection of around 1000 CDs. He also restarted collecting vinyls in 2017 and has now become a serial collector with 300 odd vinyls already in the house. On holidays you might find him crate digging for rare vinyls in the alleys of Dubai, Delhi, Istanbul, Moscow or Berkeley.