Friday 6 November 2009

Hardcore troubadors - Steve & Townes

There's only one artist that I religiously follow these days - waiting for each new album to be released and then buying it straight away - or having to see the show whenever there's a UK tour - and that's Steve Earle.

So this week I took my other daughter (not the Green Day one) to see him at The Barbican. The venue is about the worst atmosphere for a gig like that - far too reverential for something that belongs in a bar or a coffee house and the audience seemed elderly to me so fuck knows how old them seemed to my thirteen year old. But a Steve Earle gig is a Steve Earle gig and I loved it nonetheless.

In fact this Steve Earle gig was just as much a Townes Van Zandt gig as much of the material came from the latest  album 'Townes'. An album of Steve's covers of his friend and mentors' work. I'm not too familiar with Townes Van Zandt - but it says something that I am now inspired  to go off  and buy some of his back catalogue this lunchtime.

Here's a clip of the gig - this time playing one of own:

3 comments:

Mark P said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTGKzWDakK8

One of the best of the many Van Zandt numbers on youtube.

Dojo Rat said...

That was an awsome video, the Vanzandt linked above.

My Friend Creech opened a Pub in Port Townsend USA and Townes was hired for a gig. His road manager told the bar staff not to give him any whiskey. Everyone started buying him whiskey anyway.
It did not go well.
But what a great poet!

Journeyman said...

Thank you for the link - it's inspired me to seek out the 'Heartworn Highways'film again.