"},"length":{"wt":""},"label":{"wt":"[[New West Records|New West]]"},"producer":{"wt":"[[Steve Earle]]"},"prev_title":{"wt":"[[Washington Square Serenade]]"},"prev_year":{"wt":"2007"},"next_title":{"wt":"[[I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (Steve Earle album)|I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive]]"},"next_year":{"wt":"2011"}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwBA">2009 studio albumby Steve Earle
Townes | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 12, 2009 | |||
Genre | Folk [1] | |||
Label | New West | |||
Producer | Steve Earle | |||
Steve Earle chronology | ||||
|
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 82/100 [2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Townes is the 13th studio album by American singer-songwriter Steve Earle, released in 2009. It is an album on which he pays tribute to his friend and mentor, the late singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt by covering his songs. [3] According to a New West Records press release, "The songs selected for Townes were the ones that meant the most to Earle and the ones he personally connected to (not including selections featured on previous Earle albums). Some of the selections chosen were songs that Earle has played his entire career ("Pancho & Lefty", "Lungs" and "White Freightliner Blues") and others he had to learn specifically for recording. [4]
Notable guest appearances on the album include Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave/Street Sweeper Social Club) playing electric guitar on "Lungs", and Earle's wife Allison Moorer singing backing vocals on "Loretta" and "To Live Is to Fly". Earle and his son, Justin Townes Earle trade verses on "Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold". [4] He is backed by The Bluegrass Dukes on "White Freightliner Blues" and "Delta Momma Blues".
This album won Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards. [5]
A two disc CD version included a subset of the songs performed solo by Earle. This bonus set was also released on vinyl for Record Store Day. [6]
All tracks are written by Townes Van Zandt (except where noted).
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Pancho & Lefty" | 4:02 | |
2. | "White Freightliner Blues" | 3:28 | |
3. | "Colorado Girl" | 3:35 | |
4. | "Where I Lead Me" | 3:30 | |
5. | "Lungs" | 2:19 | |
6. | "No Place To Fall" | 2:53 | |
7. | "Loretta" | 3:14 | |
8. | "Brand New Companion" | 5:12 | |
9. | "Rake" | 3:23 | |
10. | "Delta Momma Blues" | Van Zandt, Matthew Moore, Caddo Parish Studdard | 5:14 |
11. | "Marie" | 4:53 | |
12. | "Don't Take It Too Bad" | 3:12 | |
13. | "Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold" | 2:18 | |
14. | "(Quicksilver Daydreams of) Maria" | 3:20 | |
15. | "To Live Is To Fly" | 3:40 |
(included in 2-CD version)
All tracks are written by Townes Van Zandt.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Pancho And Lefty" | 4:02 |
2. | "Where I Lead Me" | 3:37 |
3. | "Lungs" | 2:22 |
4. | "No Place To Fall" | 2:56 |
5. | "Loretta" | 3:14 |
6. | "Brand New Companion" | 5:12 |
7. | "Rake" | 3:22 |
8. | "Marie" | 4:49 |
9. | "Mr. Mudd And Mr. Gold" | 2:34 |
10. | "(Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria" | 3:15 |
11. | "To Live Is To Fly" | 3:36 |
Chart (2009) | Peak position |
---|---|
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums | 6 |
U.S. Billboard 200 | 19 |
U.S. Billboard Top Independent Albums | 2 |
Stephen Fain Earle is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music genre, Earle branched out into multiple genres of rock music, bluegrass, folk music and blues.
John Townes Van Zandt was an American singer-songwriter. He wrote numerous songs, such as "Pancho and Lefty", "For the Sake of the Song", "If I Needed You", "Tecumseh Valley", "Tower Song", "Rex's Blues", and "To Live Is to Fly", that are widely considered masterpieces of American songwriting. His musical style has often been described as melancholy and features rich, poetic lyrics. During his early years, Van Zandt was respected for his guitar playing and fingerpicking ability.
Our Mother the Mountain is the second album by country singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt, released in 1969. It is considered to be one of his greatest recordings and features some of his best known works, including "Be Here To Love Me", "Snake Mountain Blues" and "Our Mother The Mountain".
High, Low and In Between is an album by country singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt, released in 1971. The album was recorded in L.A. and showcases what Van Zandt himself considered to be one of his most well written songs: "To Live Is To Fly".
Together at the Bluebird Café is a live recording of an "in-the-round" concert by three critically acclaimed Texan singer-songwriters, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. Each alternates between solo performances.
At My Window is an album released by folk/country singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt in 1987. This was Van Zandt's first studio album in the nine years that followed 1978's Flyin' Shoes, and his only studio album recorded in the 1980s.
No Deeper Blue is a 1994 studio album by Texas country/folk singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. This was Van Zandt's first studio album of original songs in seven years following At My Window and the last to be widely released before his death on New Year's Day 1997.
Train a Comin' is the fifth studio album by Steve Earle, released in 1995. In addition to Earle, it features Peter Rowan, Norman Blake, Roy Huskey, and Emmylou Harris. The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Just An American Boy is a live album by Steve Earle. The album was released in 2003.
Washington Square Serenade is the 12th studio album by American singer-songwriter Steve Earle, released in 2007. The album features the singer's wife Allison Moorer on the track "Days Aren't Long Enough," and the Brazilian group Forro in the Dark on the track "City of Immigrants." The track "Way Down in the Hole," written by Tom Waits, was used as the opening theme song for the fifth and final season of the HBO series The Wire, on which Earle played a recurring character named Walon. The album was released on September 25, 2007, on New West Records. In February 2008 it won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album.
Live and Obscure is a live album released by folk/country singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt in 1987. It was recorded at Twelfth and Porter in Nashville, Tennessee in April 1985.
Justin Townes Earle was an American singer-songwriter and musician. After his debut, EP Yuma (2007), he released eight full-length albums. He was recognized with an Americana Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2009 and for Song of the Year in 2011 for "Harlem River Blues". His father is alternative country artist Steve Earle.
I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive is the 14th studio album by American singer-songwriter Steve Earle, released in 2011, produced by T-Bone Burnett. All of the songs are written by Earle, with the exception of the title track, which is included as a download-only bonus track.
Unfinished Business is the thirty-first album by American singer Wanda Jackson.
Mockingbird is an album of covers by Allison Moorer released in 2008. Moorer covers songs by Nina Simone, Patti Smith, Cat Power, June Carter Cash, Joni Mitchell, as well as her sister Shelby Lynne.
The Low Highway is the 15th studio album by singer-songwriter Steve Earle, released in 2013. The album features two songs co-written by Earle and Lucia Micarelli: "Love's Gonna Blow My Way", "After Mardi Gras". Two songs from the album, "After Mardi Gras" and "That All You Got?", are featured in the HBO TV Series Treme.
Down to Believing is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Allison Moorer. It was released on March 16, 2015 by eOne Nashville and sees her reunited with producer Kenny Greenberg who produced her first two albums. The album was recorded over two years and inspired by events in her personal life during that time including her divorce from Steve Earle and her young son's diagnosis with autism.
Getting Somewhere is the fifth studio album by singer/songwriter Allison Moorer. The album was produced by Moorer's new husband and fellow singer/songwriter Steve Earle and recorded in Nashville. Written on the road while touring with Earle, it saw her embrace a more pop sound and became her first album where the majority of songs were written solely by Moorer. She told PopMatters in 2004: "Some of the records I’ve made have had a lot of cooks, for lack of a better word. This one basically was just me and Steve, and I had written all the songs while he was around. We were on the road together, and so he had a ringside seat for the whole writing of it. So when we went in to make the record in December, it was kind of just a given what we were going to do."
The Nashville Sessions is an album by Texas singer and songwriter Townes Van Zandt, recorded in 1973 but not released until 1993. The tracks were originally recorded for what would have been Van Zandt's seventh album, but was not released until twenty years later due to a dispute between producer Jack Clement and Poppy Records founder Kevin Eggers. The record has been described those who knew Van Zandt as a crucial "missing link" in his discography.
J.T. is a studio album by American rock band Steve Earle & The Dukes. The album is a tribute to Earle's oldest son, Justin Townes Earle, who died of an accidental drug overdose on August 20, 2020. It was released by New West Records on January 4, 2021 on what would have been Justin's 39th birthday. Recording sessions took place at Electric Lady Studios in New York City with Ray Kennedy as audio engineer. Production was handled by Steve Earle himself. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 82 based on eleven reviews.