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Townes Van Zandt CBG Tribute Album - Your Submissions needed

Hey, y'all!

Townes Van Zandt (1944 - 1997) was a Texas singer-songwriter-poet, whose music has touched a deep chord (pun intended) amongst many of us here at CBN. No, he's not related, except perhaps very distantly, to those other musical Van Zandt boys many of us also love. Townes was hailed, back in 1985 by none other than another gifted songwriter, Steve Earle, as "the greatest songwriter in the world, and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that!" Whether or not you agree with ol' Steve, there is a deep knowledge of the blues, heartache, pain and melancholy in Townes' songs. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, please visit his estate's website to get to know him better (all proceeds go to support his children and his second wife, Jeanene):

https://townesvanzandt.com/

Several of us here at CBN (myself, Uncle John, Turtlehead, and maybe some others I haven't seen or heard - I know the owner of Diamondbackguitarshop and beStillroy are also huge fans) have done videos of us playing our versions of Townes' songs, many of which came out nearly 40 years ago. We realized that the CBG may be the perfect instrument on which to reinterpret and breathe new life into Townes' songs. In fact, we've been kicking the idea around in the Comment section of Uncle John's video rendition of "Flying Shoes" for the last coupla weeks (check it out), and came up with the idea for a tribute album, using only CBGs (I know, I know: Townes never played one, to my knowledge, and I and perhaps many others of you learned "Pancho and Lefty" on a 6-stringer, but still...).

So, if you're still with me, we're looking for MP3 submissions from those who play Townes' songs, wanna try 'em on CBG, may have never heard of him but like what they hear - any and all are welcome. His catalogue is pretty deep, so I'd like to lay claim to "If I Needed You" right here, right now! (hmmm. Jesus Jones...nah) ;-) We're also looking for someone willing to create some original cover art. The idea behind this is not to make money. We wouldn't want to charge for these songs or this album. We just wanna get 'em out to the larger CBN audience. As currently envisioned, it would be of a similar nature to the free download Robert Johnson tribute album, or the various CBN Christmas albums. It is not designed to detract from, or compete with, the Blues Album Dan Sleep is currently putting together for CBN, which many of us here are also contributing to. All we ask, like the judges on American Idol, is that you make your submitted TVZ song your own.

For those who are interested, you can add MP3 files using the Attach Files or Upload Files link at the bottom left to this Discussion. Record 'em however y'all feel comfortable: lo-fi, hi-fi, wi-fi, or in-fi, doesn't matter. You can PM me here at CBN for any offline technical or otherwise discussions. I will, eventually, get back to you.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 19, 2012 at 5:20am

There's time...give it a shot.

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Hinrichsen on June 19, 2012 at 5:10am

Cool up-tempo version. For the higher notes your voice reminds me a little of Mumford and Sons.

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Permalink Reply by turtlehead on June 18, 2012 at 6:53pm

Lots of last minute activity. I like it.

Here's Pancho. Oily on Vocals, Vinyl on guitar, Thorsten bass, dulcimer and backup vocals, me on slide and backup. Sounds much like what was in my head a month ago or so.

Give yourselves a big round of applause everyone and take a bow. This thing turned out to be bigger and better than anyone could have expected.

Sharing the music with y'all has been a great experience - can't wait to do it again!

Attachments:

Pancho and Lefty.mp3, 7 MB

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 18, 2012 at 8:00pm

Turtle,

Wow! You made us all sound good! Thanks for the room and vocal reverb, and for putting all the parts together. Thanks to everyone for providing parts! Sounds like we are in a bar somewhere, and everyone in the audience just got really quiet, even the bartenders and waitresses. What do y'all wanna call the group? Vinyl, Oily, Thorsten, Turtle...Hmm. The Vott Brothers? Troubadours Of The Valley? Muzzletov? Fourplay?

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Permalink Reply by Vinylhed on June 19, 2012 at 12:34am

Oily & The Grease Stains?

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Permalink Reply by Grease Stains on June 19, 2012 at 2:46am

Sounds cool to me :D hshahahs

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on June 19, 2012 at 3:42am

Figured Grease would like that! And I agree, it has a certain (bathtub) ring to it ;-). But honestly, I'd rather not put my name up front. This was a seriously kewl group effort from start to finish, and besides, Turtle's gettin' antsy. I counted up 26 songs today on my iPod TVZT folder ( will verify this weekend), so we're definitely in double platinum...er, album, territory.

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Permalink Reply by turtlehead on June 19, 2012 at 2:07am

It does have a live performance feel. Maybe a little heavy on the reverb, but I like it and it's time to be done. You did a great job on the vocals and the second take really helped. Let's take this show on the road!

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Permalink Reply by RTZGUITARS on June 19, 2012 at 4:34am

The Townes Van Zandt Singers well done well done. I have to admit I like what i heard for the clips so I made a version. This is great well done Oily! everybody!