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and they were gonna live out there and raise donkeys.” Richard Dobson also recalls the donkey farm idea.17

According to Calvin, Townes planned to “just do some gigs, hang out, and drink, cook, make love.… He was gonna get out of Tennessee and go back to Texas, and he was gonna be on his little rancho for the most part, and if he was gonna come out and do a show, they were gonna pay good for it. He was gonna marry her and move out to the desert in West Texas and live happily ever after, and to hell with the world.”

Whether or not the plans would have come to pass is impossible to guess, but his friends agree that Claudia brought a special joy to Townes’ last months. “I’m sure that they would have gotten married,” Bob Moore says. “She quit her job and was coming here. She called to tell Townes when she was gonna be arriving, and Will answered the phone, and he said, ‘My dad just died.’ Then she came on. She was a very nice lady. I remember Townes said he would hit passing gear on the truck and start going real fast and he said it would always make Claudia laugh,” Moore recalls. “She told me, ‘We were like kids, we were so much in love.’ So at least he got that.”

Cindy Van Zandt arrived at Belmont Church right after the funeral ended. Jim Calvin recalls, “Everybody’s gone, and me and Royann and Claudia are sitting there. And this woman drives up in a bright red Camaro, and she’s got reddish blonde hair, and it was Cindy. And she says ‘It’s all over?’ And I says, ‘Yeah, I guess so. But you’re in time for a flower.’ And I gave her one of the flowers that was left. And she took it, got in her car, and drove back to Texas.”

There was another funeral in Dido, Texas, outside Ft. Worth, where Townes Van Zandt’s deepest roots lay. The family service was attended by many friends as well, who all gathered near the Van Zandt plot in Dido Cemetery, where, on that cold January day, Townes’ mortal remains were laid to rest.18 His tomb-stone reads

To Live’s To Fly

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Afterword

T
HEFIRSTPOSTHUMOUSTOWNES VANZandt tribute show was held a few weeks after his death, at the Cactus Café in Austin on two nights when Townes had been booked to play his “home club.” Friends and fans gathered to hear Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Kimmie Rhodes, J.T. Van Zandt (who attended a number of tribute shows and has become an accomplished performer) and others play Townes’ music and remember his life. More all-star tributes followed quickly, including a notable show at the Bottom Line in New York and gatherings in Nashville, Houston, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Guy and Susanna Clark hosted a “Celebration of Townes Van Zandt” on
Austin
City Limits
with Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Nanci Griffith, Jack Clement, and others (including J.T.), which became one of the series’ most popular shows.

The Clarks were also prominently involved in an album project that was released in 2001 on Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Records called
Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt
, which featured Guy, Willie, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Cowboy Junkies, John Prine, Ray Benson, Billy Joe Shaver, Steve Earle, Delbert McClinton, and J.T., among others.

And every New Year’s Day since the first anniversary of Van Zandt’s passing, at the Old Quarter Acoustic Café in Galveston, Townes’ old running buddy Rex Bell—“Wrecks”—hosts his Annual Townes Van Zandt Wake. Each year, the cozy barroom fills with fans, friends, family, and onlookers, and the tiny corner stage holds a parade of musicians young and old playing Townes’

music, interpreting his songs, and making them new.

268

Afterword

269

On the other side of the coin, the bickering, ill will, and lawsuits surrounding Van Zandt after his death mark the final and most unfortunate similarity between Townes and his hero, Hank Williams. As one of the principals admitted five years after Townes was laid to rest, “It’s ugly—way uglier than you can imagine.”

But, fifty years after Hank Williams’ death, few remember the details of or the participants in the petty, transitory squabbles that arose on his passing. Hank Williams’ legacy is secure. His complete works are available all over the world and his songs have become part of the American vernacular. It seems reasonable to imagine that the same could come to pass for Townes Van Zandt.

[Townes] basically went down in flames, but he stayed so true to his vision you can’t fault him for anything. He was never hypo-critical about the devotion to his music. He died in the course of living on the road and playing his music. There aren’t going to be any new songs or performances. Once everyone is done rushing out whatever they have, the real test will begin. The test of time—and time is still ahead of him. That he makes it through the hype is all that’s important. This is music that deserves to be treasured as genuine folk music for centuries. —
J.T. Van Zandt
I remember having a conversation with Jimmie Dale Gilmore about him, and we both came to the conclusion that the only reason Townes was still on the earth at that point was to write songs and to sing them. It was like he had some connection with some very strange energy, whatever you want to call it, you know, his muse, that wouldn’t let him leave until she or it was finished with him. He was the cipher for this expression that people had to hear. And it was almost like he knew that. He almost wanted to go, but he realized there was unfinished work to be done. And that was quite a few years before he died. And I think, near the end there, he was almost waiting to go in a weird way. “I’ve done my bit, I’ve had my say, now I’ve got to leave.”

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… Again, in some of his darker moods, he would talk very cryp-tically about things like that.

I think Townes knew what he was doing was pretty special.

I do think he knew that. And I don’t think it really bothered him that much one way or the other, whether people knew that or not, as long as he was doing that. I think he had an understanding of his place and of what he was responsible for, really.

Which is unusual. —
Michael Timmins

In his songs, Townes is usually talking metaphorically about consciousness and the primal, universal battle of darkness and light.

Townes was so articulate about it, he was so passionately feeling that he spent a whole lot of energy trying to escape the intensity of his feelings. That’s really clear to me, especially looking back on it. He had a lot of command of the language. He was a poet, and there’s kind of a tradition of that, the depressed outsider.

But he also had this incredible sense of humor, and despite the heaviness, that was a real common bond among all of us who knew him. He sidestepped his pain with humor. There was a mixture of darkness, light and slapstick going on. Townes could make us feel his pain, laugh and feel hopeful all at the same time. —
Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Endnotes

Introduction

1. “No Place to Fall,”
Picking Up the Tempo,
no. 17, no date but estimated late 1977.

2. Lola Scobey, “Biography,”
For the Sake of the Song
(Houston: Wings Press, 1977).

3. Author’s interview with Frank “Chito” Greer, September 1, 2001.

Chapter 1

1. This is the version of the migration accepted by the Van Zandt Society at the time of this writing. There is a version that Jeanene Van Zandt recalls hearing from Townes’ Aunt Sudi (Martha Ann Van Zandt Perryman, who died in 1998) that has Jacob, born in the 1750s, immigrating from Holland with the Moravian Colony and settling in Pennsylvania, then moving to North Carolina. The Society’s Historian, Sally Van Sant, writes:

Jacob was the son of Garret and Mary Van Zandt (possibly the grandson of Albertus and the great grandson of Garret and Lysbeth Van Sant). Garret the great grandfather is the one who immigrated [to America] not Jacob. We have no proof that Jacob went with the Moravian Colony and in searching all the Moravian records there is no mention of any Van Sant (any spelling).

2. Frances Cooke Lipscomb Van Zandt (born 3/4/1816 in Virginia, died 4/1909 in Texas) was also a fascinating character who, toward the end of her life, wrote a book,
Reminiscences of Frances Cooke Van
Zandt, Wife of Isaac Van Zandt.
She was known as Fanny, and a price-less transcript exists of one of her slaves, J. M. Moore, talking about his life with the Van Zandts:

My mistress was named Fanny and was one sweet soul. She had five children and they lived here in town but have a purty big farm east of town. My mother sewed for Mistress Fanny, so we lived in town. There were lots of niggers on the farm and everybody round these parts called us ‘Van Zandt’s free niggers,’ ‘cause our white folks shared with their darkies and larned ‘em all to read and write. The other owners wouldn’t have none of Van Zandt’s niggers.…

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A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt
George P. Rawick
,
ed.,
The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
, vol. 5 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1979).

3. The Texas State Historical Association, “Civil War,” “Van Zandt, Khleber Miller,” The Handbook of Texas Online, www.tsha.utexas.

edu/handbook/online.

4. Isaac Lycurgus Van Zandt died in 1935; Sara Ellen Henderson Van Zandt died in 1915.

5. Donna Van Zandt Spence recalls that her grandmother, Bell Williams Van Zandt, also had twin boys who died at birth before her aunts were born, and a boy, Jack, born before her father. These children’s graves are in the Van Zandt plot in Dido Cemetery: “Infant Twins, December 6 1904” and “Jack Van Zandt, February 8 1911 – November 20 1916.”

6. Sources for personal details on this generation of Townes’ family include author’s interviews with Townes’ sister Donna Spence (March 27, 2000), brother Bill Van Zandt (March 28, 2000), and first wife Fran (now Lohr) (March 29, 2000; January 5, 2001; and January 12, 2002).

7. The Texas State Historical Association,
Handbook of Texas Online
, www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/.

Chapter 2

1. All quotes from Bill Van Zandt and Donna Van Zandt Spence are from the author’s interviews: Donna Spence, March 27, 2000; and William Van Zandt, March 28, 2000.

2. Fran Lohr, interview by the author, January 12, 2002.

3. Ibid.

4. In 1961, Frances presented the Van Zandt family with a longhand reminiscence of her years with the Van Zandts, which she titled “My White Family.” Her recollections here are taken from that manuscript, which Bill Van Zandt has lovingly preserved.

5. Fran Lohr, author’s interview.

6. Ibid.

7. Todd Musburger, interview by the author, July 9, 2001.

8. Townes told this story many times, including to DJ Larry Monroe in an interview included on the CD
Documentary: Townes Van Zandt,
Normal Records, 1997.

9. “Fraulein,” written by Lawton Williams, was a hit for Bobby Helms and remained on the country charts for fifty-two consecutive weeks.

It was later recorded by many other country artists, from Ernest Tubb to Mickey Gilley to Willie Nelson. Townes made a studio recording of the song for his 1972 release
The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt
.

The source for the statement that Townes learned the song during the week after Christmas is Townes himself, introducing the song during a live performance in 1990 in Berlin, Germany, later released as
Rain on a Conga Drum
.

Endnotes

273

Chapter 3

1. 1977 interviews by Richard Wootton and Scott Giles, and material from Bob Claypool (
The Houston Post
, June 1, 1977) and Joel McNally (
The Milwaukee Journal
, May 1, 1977), were reprinted in “Townes Van Zandt
,” Omaha Rainbow,
no. 15, December 1977.

2. The source of the story about driving from oil field to oil field listening to the radio is Paul Zollo’s introduction to his 1990 interview with Townes in
Songwriters on Songwriting
(New York: Da Capo Press, 1997). The source of the quote from Townes about his deepest musical influences is that same introduction.

3. The sentence about the starving person is quoted by Michael Hall in his article in
Texas Monthly
, “The Great, Late Townes Van Zandt,”

March 1998.

4. As Townes told the story to Susanna Clark (interview by the author, March 28, 2000), after he shot the deer: “he looked up at his father, which was very hard for him to do, and said, I’m never going to do this again, ever. And his father said, Okay.” The following statement from Bill Van Zandt (interview by the author) should also be taken into consideration: “The shame of it was Townes was real good at—

Townes had really good reflexes. Later we went duck hunting, and Townes would kill all kinds of ducks without any trouble.”

5. This story was recounted by Susanna Clark in her interview with the author.

6. Bill Van Zandt interview.

7. This story was recounted by Fran Lohr, interview by the author.

8. Academic transcript for Townes Van Zandt, Boulder High School, 1958−1959 class record.

9. Jeanene Van Zandt relates this story, as Townes told it to her, in an article in the
Guardian UK
, August 1998, called “Legend of the Fall.”

10. Bill Van Zandt interview.

11. Townes is quoted telling this story in Nashville in 1990, by Paul Zollo in his book of interviews,
Songwriters on Songwriting
.

12. This story is also told in Zollo,
Songwriters on Songwriting
.

13. Academic transcript for Townes (John) Van Zandt [
sic
], Barrington High School, 1958−1959 class record.

14. All quotes from Todd Musburger are from the author’s interview, July 9, 2001.

15. All quotes from Luke Sharpe are from the author’s interview, August 21, 2001.

16. All quotes from Marshall Froker are from the author’s interview, June 22, 2001.

17. Bob Myrick, interview by the author, February 12, 2001.