Track Listing

1. Black Widow Blues
2. Maryetta's Song
3. Hunger Child Blues
4. Gypsy Friday
5. Waitin' For The Day
6. Black Jack Mama
7. When Your Dream Lover Dies
8. Colorado Bound
9. Big Country Blues
10. Black Crow Blues

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150929 in Music
• Released on: 2003-04-22
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Ten exceptional tracks from the legendary singer/songwriter circa 1966, previously unreleased, unheard and unreal! Compadre Records. 2003.

Amazon.com
The haunting songs of the late Townes Van Zandt combined searing honesty and tender melancholy in equal parts. The tortured Texas troubadour contributed a series of classic compositions (such as "Pancho & Lefty" and "If I Needed You") to the modern country repertoire, but his live work often crossed over into folk blues, especially in his early days in Houston. The newly discovered In the Beginning, recorded in Nashville in 1966 two years before the release of his debut, makes his blues affinity obvious while showcasing the unusual emotional maturity of his first efforts. His youthful voice is pure and strong, but the lyrics, permeated with his signature streak of fatalistic acceptance, are already deep and dark, as songs such as "When Your Dream Lovers Die" and "Hunger Child Blues" amply illustrate. These stripped-down demos are lean and enlightened, and when Townes proclaims in "Black Widow Blues" that he's "got the blues sewn into my jacket sleeve" there's no reason to doubt him. In addition, his overlooked flat-picking guitar work, modeled after one of his musical heroes, Houston blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins, provides an additional attraction. --Michael Point

Customer Reviews

Laid Down With A Prayer & A Song
For longtime fans, this is essential. They're all originals. Some tunes might sound faintly reminiscent of later material, but each has a life of it's own. For beginners, REARVIEW MIRROR is the place to start. But for those who felt some of his albums occasionally suffered from dated overproduction, this is sure to please. Here the foundations are exposed. That's not to say this is some glorified bootleg. Though we're spared the production frills, these tracks were recorded live in the studio. In some cases, probably in one take.

The uncharacteristically aggressive opener, "Black Widow Blues" might take many longtime listeners by pleasant surprise. There aren't many recordings of Townes accompanied by full Rock backing. Like much on here, it's a lost gem.

The likes of "Maryetta's Song" rank up there with some of his most fragile, heartbreaking work. "Hunger Child Blues" goes to show the shadows were there from the start, with lines like,"Your battle's built on doom".

His Hank Williams influence has never been more apparent than on high & lonesome tunes like, "Waitin' For The Day" & "When Your Dream Lover's Die". As for the closer, "Black Crow Blues" is a bleak dirge in the classic Van Zandt style, delivered with startling intensity.

Throughout, Van Zandt's oft praised finger picking skills can be heard like never before. More so than on any record he later produced. Obviously, the bottle a this point was half full as opposed to chronically empty.

The fact that the gems herein never saw the light of day till now only makes this collection more precious for longtime fans. This is the sound of a talent in it's prime, confident in the sound of it's own unique voice. A big hand to Jeanne VZ & Jack Clements for rummaging through the attic. What a gift.

Brilliant collection of TVZ's earliest studio work
This collection of Van Zandt's first professional studio recordings provides a bittersweet opportunity to peer early into the artist's evolution. These 1966 demos, recorded two years before his official debut album, find Van Zandt in superb voice, flush with youthful clarity and strength, and devoid of the burnished ravages that time would eventually add. At the same time, his lyrics - at the age of 26 - are already laced with the fatalism and restlessness that would characterize his life's work.

These ten previously unreleased tracks are a pristine look at the result of Van Zandt's mid-60s woodshedding in Houston's clubs, rife with his folk, blues and country influences. The segue from the Hank Williams' styled wail of "Waitin' For the Day" to the percussive blues of "Black Jack Mama" shows how early Van Zandt could masterfully handle a range of material and moods. Most of these tracks are recorded solo, with Van Zandt's flat-picked guitar providing truly impressive accompaniment. The few band tracks, such as the opener, are driven arrangements of guitar, harmonica, drums and bass - the sort of rumbling electric-folk made popular on the West Coast by Country Joe & The Fish.

This is a must-have for Van Zandt fans, and an interesting introduction for the uninitiated: chronologically faithful to Van Zandt's development, but out-of-time with respect to the public disclosure of his career. Recording quality is excellent throughout, providing a very intimate experience. The tapes, having disappeared for over 35 years, retained their original vitality, and are reproduced crisply on this CD. This is a masterful collection of songs from a songwriter, who, retrospect tells us, was only at the beginning of his brilliant arc.

In the beginning. Not nearly the end.
`In The Beginning' is truly a great album; a definite must-have for any fan of Townes. The album is aptly named, introducing for the first time demos of his early career, 2 years prior to his first album. It's still filled with the same compassionate, complex lyricism, and his sound transcends categorization of any music from that period. `Black Widow Blues,' `Gypsy Friday,' and `Maryetta's Song' are among my favorite songs. The recording is surprisingly good, and the packaging itself is attractive, with paintings and photographs of Townes in the booklet. This is good stuff. And I highly recommend it.