And Number #7 is a Zandt...

Townes Van Zandt, that is.

While I could write pages upon pages of the talent that was Townes, this recent blog by Michael at 2Blowhards is a very good place to start if the music of this man is unknown to you.

His cd "The Highway Kind" was not released until after his death on New Year's Day in 1997. True, it is a live album, but the quality is closer to a studio cut. Every song on the album could qualify as a tearjerker if you knew the life story of the composer.

While looking for an image to post of Townes, I found these photos of his son, John Townes Van Zandt. The resemblance to the father is haunting. I only hope John has a more peaceful life.

Would Townes have been the talented songwriter/musician we love if he wasn't a tortured old soul? A karmic question no one knows...

The Highway Kind

My days they are the highway kind,
They only come to leave,
But the leaving I don't mind
It's the coming that I crave,
Pour the sun upon the ground,
Stand to throw a shadow,
Watch it grow into the night
And fill the spinning sky.
Time among the pine trees,
It felt like breath of air,
Usually I just walk these streets
And tell myself to care;
Sometimes I believe me,
Sometimes I don't hear,
Sometimes the shape I'm in
Won't let me go.
I don't know too much for truth,
But my heart knows how to pound,
My legs know how to love someone,
My voice knows how to sound;
It's a shame that it's not enough,
It's a shame that it is a shame,
Follow the circle down,
Where would you be?
You're the only one I want,
I've never heard your name,
Let's hope we meet someday,
If we don't it's all the same.
And I'll meet the ones between us,
And be thinking about you,
And all the places I have seen,
And why you were not there.