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Country, folk, List, Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt: His 11 best songs

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Townes

Marie she didn’t wake up this morning
She didn’t even try
She just rolled over and went to Heaven
My little boy safe inside

I laid them in the sun where somebody’d find them
Caught a Chesapeak on the fly
Marie will know I’m headed south
So’s to meet me by and by

Marie will know I’m headed south
So to meet me by and by

– Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt is one of the greatest songwriters in music-history. To narrow down my choice to just 11 songs is a pain. His 9 studio albums, and some compilations released after his death in 97 are so full of great songs that my task has been nearly impossible. I could pick 11 other songs in his songbook that are just as good, but today this is my list.

Marie:

Kurt Wolff (allmusic):
Townes Van Zandt’s music doesn’t jump up and down, wear fancy clothes, or beat around the bush. Whether he was singing a quiet, introspective country-folk song or a driving, hungry blues, Van Zandt’s lyrics and melodies were filled with the kind of haunting truth and beauty that you knew instinctively. His music came straight from his soul by way of a kind heart, an honest mind, and a keen ear for the gentle blend of words and melody. He could bring you down to a place so sad that you felt like you were scraping bottom, but just as quickly he could lift your spirits and make you smile at the sparkle of a summer morning or a loved one’s eyes — or raise a chuckle with a quick and funny talking blues. The magic of his songs is that they never leave you alone.

Continue reading Townes Van Zandt: His 11 best songs →

List

The 25 best concerts of 2013 according to Hallgeir

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Van_Morrison_at_Notodden_Blues_Festival
Photo: Jarle Vines (Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0)

I have seen a lot less concerts this year than in the two years before. I had to cut down a bit for economical and time-consuming reasons 🙂

Still, I have attended my share of shows, 42 to be exact (about half of what i attended in 2012). A lot of them have been good and some have been great. I haven’t seen many bad ones, I guess it is because I mostly see what I know.

Here are my favorites from 2013:

1. Van Morrison – Notodden Blues Festival, Notodden
2. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Bergenfest, Bergen (+photos)
3. John Murry – Bergenfest, Bergen
4. Naomi Shelton and The Gospel Queens – Bergenfest, Bergen
5. The South – Mono, Oslo
6. Tønes – Byscenen, Haugesund
7. The South – Tou Scene, Stavanger
8. Ida Jenshus – Vikedal Roots Festival, Vikedal
9. Lars Winnerbäck – Stavanger Konserthus, Stavanger
10. Chip Taylor and Paal Flaata – Smiå, Veavågen
11. John Grant – Bergenfest, Bergen (+photos)
12. Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bergenfest, Bergen
13. Simone Felice – Bergenfest, Bergen
14. Yuma Sun – Vikedal Roots Festival, Vikedal
15. Deathprod + Snah – Haugesund
16. The Low Frequency in Stereo – Høvleriet, Haugesund
17. Ida Jenshus – Notodden Blues Festival, Notodden
18. Tønes – SILK, Skudeneshavn
19. Stephen Simmons – Skapåbar, Haugesund
20. Olav Larsen & The Alabama Rodeo Stars – SILK, Skudeneshavn
21. Thomas Dybdahl – Festiviteten, Haugesund
22. Yuma Sun – Jimmy Legs, Haugesund
23. Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires – Bergenfest, Bergen
24. Steve Earle and The Dukes – Bergenfest, Bergen (+photos)
25. James Hunter Six – Notodden Blues Festival, Notodden

– Hallgeir

Great albums, List

The 30 Best Live Albums according to Hallgeir

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live header

Live albums, a lot of people doesn’t like them, I love’em! I am not very concerned with sound quality. What I mean is that I like good sound on the recordings, but a lot of factors that are more important; the “feel”, the energy, the collection of songs and the general performance. It is nice to have good quality, but sometimes the energy of a show comes through even on bad recorded concerts.

When I decided to make this list I also made the decision not to do a “critics” list, my list should be made of my “love of the album”, not it’s place in history. It has to be a list of albums that I enjoy listening to, records that excite me, that has good versions of familiar songs and fantastic versions of songs that maybe isn’t that good on the studio albums.

Some of the albums will have long posts other will have shorter descriptions and more videos, all depending on my mood.

Should I include bootlegs?
At first I meant to do that, but I will do another list with my favourite unofficial live albums and outtakes. This list consists of legal, officially released live material.

Some of the records where bootlegs at some point, but have been released officially at a later stage. I have chosen to not limit my choice to one album per artist. If an artist have more than one live album that should be considered, well I have considered all of them and included them if I think they belong on the list.

When we did our lists of albums by favourite artists to include on our About us page, we decided not to include live albums. But we did, I included one and Egil included two! I included At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash. Now, you would think that this meant that it has to be my favourite live album. That is not the case. That list was limited to just one album per artist, and therefore gives a wrong impression. It is not a list of favourite albums. If it where I believe Egil would have three or four more Dylan albums on his list, I would also have included more than one album by some artists.

What I’m trying to explain is that there are artists on that list that have better live albums than At Folsom Prison (not many, but they do exist…).

My list has Spotify links if the albums are on Spotify, and I have included YouTube videos from the concerts recorded when I have found them.

The first entry will be posted later today…

 

– Hallgeir

Posts in this series:
Introduction
27. On Stage by Elvis Presley
28. One for the road by The Kinks
29. Waiting for Columbus by Little Feat
30. Wings over America by Wings