Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 - January 1, 1997) was a folk music songwriter and performing artist.

Innate inside Fort Worth, Texas, the son of an oil executive, he travelled inside his youth in the area of Texas & Colorado. He was a swell nifty awesome grandchild of Isaac Van Zandt, a large leader of the Republic of Texas and early state of Texas.

Influential in the sub-genre known as Alternative Country, his Texas-grounded impact stretched farther than country. One of his major influences was Texas blues man Lightnin' Hopkins whose songs were a constant a portion of his repertoire.

Townes was master of the microscopic, confidant indicate in which he'd weave song & story into an unforgettable evening for people lucky sufficiency to witness. He regulary performed using his smashing friend & coeval, Guy Clark. Usually shy & reticent, Van Zandt's performances featured the dry humor — an integral a portion of his songwriting. Early inside his career he wrote several weak-lightsome & humourous songs, Van Zandt before long harnessed his talent for dark & bittersweet love-song & ballads prefer "For the Sake of the Song" & "Tecumseh Valley".

Mostly he performed for microscopic however appreciative audiences inside Texas blocks. Tomato Records freed a Two-disc survive album from either the Old Quarter in Houston, Texas that captured him in such the performance. It includes his virtually all popular & definitive songs like "Lungs", "For the Sake of the Song", "Tecumseh Valley", "To Live Is To Fly", & his best known (thanks to many covers, virtually all notably by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard), "Pancho & Lefty".

He continued writing & performing at his have pace through the Nineties until his premature demise around 1997. Townes is remembered as the wonderful songster world health organization left a bequest of peachy songs & elysian musicians.

Quotes about Van Zandt
"Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that." - Steve Earle.