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WE CURRENTLY HAVE  NEARLY 200  LISTED ITEMS

 

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·       TOWNES VAN ZANDT – LIVE AT THE OLD QUARTER, HOUSTON, TEXAS –  RARE, LONG OUT OF PRINT 2009 FAT POSSUM RECORDS LIMITED, AUDIOPHILE EDITION 2-LP SET PRESSED ON 180-GRAM VIRGIN VINYL  - FAT POSSUM STEREO DOUBLE ALBUM FP1118-1

 

·       GENUINE  U.S. PRESSING

 

·       ORIGINAL COLOR-CODED LABELS TURQUOISE (AQUA-BLUE)  FAT POSSUM LABEL ON DISC 1; BLACK LABELS ON DISC 2.

 

·       THIS IS NOT AN IMPORT, RECORD CLUB RELEASE OR A COUNTERFEIT PRESSING.

 

·       ORIGINAL GATEFOLD COVER

 

·       ORIGINAL GLOSSY, LIGHTLY LAMINATED COVER

 

·       COVER IS STILL IN ITS ORIGINAL SHRINK (CELLOPHANE) WRAP WITH A NIFTY STICKER STILL AFFIXED TO THE WRAP.

 

·       VERY THICK, VERY HEAVY VINYL PRESSING

 

·       CLEAN, WEAR-FREE LABELS

 

(►PLEASE SEE THE IMAGE OF THE COVER, LABEL OR BOTH, SHOWN BELOW)

(Note: this is a REAL image of the ACTUAL item you are bidding on. This is NOT a "recycled" image from our previous auction. What you see is what you’ll get.  GUARANTEED!)

 

 

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Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas is a double live album by Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. The recording captures Van Zandt in a series of July 1973 performances in an intimate venue and there is a strong critical consensus that this recording is among the most exemplary of Van Zandt's career.

 

Recording

 

In July 1973, Van Zandt performed a string of shows over five sweltering nights at the Old Quarter club owned by Rex Bell and Dale Soffar that were recorded on a portable four track by Earl Willis, the album's producer and engineer. They would eventually be released four years later by Van Zandt's previous producer and manager Kevin Eggers on his new Tomato Records label. The liner notes describe the recording as the "Rosetta Stone" of Texas music. One can hear Van Zandt's influences in covers by artists like Bo Diddley, Texas bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins, and country picker Merle Travis. Van Zandt's most famous works can also be heard, such as "If I Needed You" and "Pancho and Lefty" played to an audience not already familiar with these songs. The singer's laconic banter and corny jokes are also on full display. The album is also noted for the intimacy of the performance, with Van Zandt taking the stage alone and accompanying himself on guitar as he did thousands of times during his career. In the 2007 biography To Live's To Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt, John Kruth writes that Van Zandt played "to nearly a hundred folks per set, packed shoulder to shoulder within the club's bare brick walls. The room was so jammed that it was impossible for a waitress to wend her way through the crowd to take drink orders. People had to pass money hand over fist and wait, in hopes that a mug of cold beer would eventually find its way back to them." Van Zandt is introduced by Dale Soffar and, after apologizing for the busted air conditioning, performs a gentle reading of "Pancho and Lefty", describing how he wrote the song while traveling near Dallas with Daniel Antopolsky. At the end of the song the singer remarks, "I've never heard it so quiet in here." The photograph on the album cover was shot by Steve Salmieri.

 

Release & Reception

 

The release of Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas in 1977 followed a period of relative inactivity for Van Zandt, whose last album, The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt was released in 1972. Van Zandt had recorded a follow up with the working title 7 Come 11, but its release was held up due to a dispute between producer Jack Clement and Poppy Records founder Kevin Eggers. When the live album finally came out it received euphoric praise from critics, who had bemoaned the overproduction on some of his earlier records. Sean Mitchell of the Dallas Times Herald commented, "Though this gifted songwriter has been a legend in and around the folk circuit of the Southwest for a decade, his albums have been harder to find than El Dorado." The LA Times hailed Van Zandt as "a cross between Woody Guthrie and Leonard Cohen." AllMusic writes that Van Zandt "could work magic in front of an audience under the right circumstances, and while a wealth of live recordings of Van Zandt have emerged since his passing on the first day of 1997, Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas ranks with the very best of his concert albums."an anonymous reviewer  opines, "It's not just his best live album, but maybe his best album, period." Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes told Van Zandt biographer John Kruth that he'd been given a copy of the album by Mark Olson of the Jayhawks and that the record "really spoke to me. I listened to it constantly while on a tour of Europe. In rock and roll people tend to forget about the importance of songwriting. Townes really inspired me to become a better songwriter. That motherfvcker had his antennas up."

 

Van Zandt remained cautiously optimistic about his critical windfall, stating in a 1977 interview with Omaha Rainbow, "I kind of forgot all about them. Then Kevin Eggers took the tapes to a studio at Lima, Ohio, and came out with the record. It's okay. That's what went down and it's good to have. Getting that record out on Tomato meant to me that all the mire that the business end of my career got wedged into was finally evaporating. I was out of the chute on a brand new horse, right?"

 

Track listing

 

All lyrics and music by Townes Van Zandt except where noted.

 

Disc 1:

 

"Announcement" (by Dale Soffar) – :44

"Pancho and Lefty" – 4:08

"Mr. Mudd & Mr. Gold" – 3:40

"Don't You Take It Too Bad" – 2:57

"Two Girls" – 3:51

"Fraternity Blues" – 3:07

"If I Needed You" – 3:18

"Brand New Companion" – 4:20

"White Freight Liner Blues" – 3:26

"To Live Is to Fly" – 3:20

"She Came and She Touched Me" – 4:09

"Talking Thunderbird Blues" – 2:33

"Rex's Blues" – 3:05

"Nine Pound Hammer" (Merle Travis) – 3:06

 

Disc 2:

 

"For the Sake of the Song" – 4:48

"Chauffeur's Blues" (Lightnin' Hopkins) – 4:33

"No Place to Fall" – 3:08

"Loretta" – 2:26

"Kathleen" – 2:54

"Why She's Acting This Way" – 5:42

"Cocaine Blues" (Traditional) – 3:21

"Who Do You Love?" (Ellas McDaniel) – 3:44

"Tower Song" – 3:47

"Waiting 'Round to Die" – 2:35

"Tecumseh Valley" – 4:30

"Lungs" – 2:34

"Only Him or Me" – 2:42

 

 (EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW IN WIKIPEDIA.ORG)

 

Townes Van Zandt is better regarded as a songwriter than as a performer, and not without reason -- he was a peerless lyricist with a singular ability to capture the landscape of the heart and soul in words, but while he was a fine singer he wasn't exceptional, and the ravages of alcohol, tobacco and drugs took a fearsome toll on his voice in his last years. But Van Zandt could work magic in front of an audience under the right circumstances, and while a wealth of live recordings of Van Zandt have emerged since his passing on the first day of 1997, Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas ranks with the very best of his concert albums. Live at the Old Quarter is simple and spare, capturing Van Zandt in a 1973 solo performance at a Houston saloon with just his acoustic guitar for company, and the engineering ably captures the ambience of the room, with the audience clearly caught up in the spell of these songs. The set features 26 songs, all originals except for covers of "Cocaine Blues," "Nine Pound Hammer," and "Who Do You Love," and Van Zandt brigs these tunes to life with an easy grace that's a striking complement to the emotional gravity of his lyrics, though he also gives his lighter side an airing here, occasionally cracking jokes and offering a pair of funny talking blues numbers, "Talking Thunderbird Blues" and "Fraternity Blues." If the renditions of "Pancho & Lefty," "If I Needed You," "Rex's Blues," "For the Sake of the Song," and "Tecumseh Valley" aren't quite definitive, they're beautiful and affecting, and thanks to the sharp performances, on-point vocals, and superb set list, this is a superior document of Townes Van Zandt on-stage, and is a fine introduction to his body of work.

 

 (EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW BY MARK DEMING, ALL MUSIC GUIDE  /ALLMUSIC.COM/)

 

Live at The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas is essentially Townes Van Zandt's unadorned greatest hits collection.  For this very reason, many fans of his peg this as his greatest album ... and for good reason.  Van Zandt was a tortured soul who was just a plain and simple songwriter.  Some people considered him a country artist, others folk, some yet still blues.  He was just a songwriter.  Musically, his compositions weren't that complex, but, as well all know, musical complexity does not a good song make.  Lyrically, he shares few peers.  He is often compared with Bob Dylan, which is a comparison I've never really understood (aside from the fact that both are solid lyricists).  Van Zandt was more interested in narrative than Dylan, and more preoccupied with the resonance of images in his narratives than Dylan, who, in his best songs, is driven to play with words and juxtapose opposing meanings to break down narrative.

 

Recorded on a hot, humid summer evening in July 1973 at a cramped bar, this is as intimate a live recording as you're likely to hear.  One reason why many Van Zandt aficionados prefer this two-LP set to his studio albums is that Van Zandt was indifferent to the recording process.  As a result, his studio albums are often marred by dated, lachrymose string arrangement that challenge the integrity of the songs and their creator's vision.  This album presents just Townes Van Zandt and his guitar (and an attentive audience).

 

Here, we get some of his best songs: "Pancho & Lefty," "If I Needed You," "For the Sake of the Song," "Waiting 'round to Die," "Tecumseh Valley," and "Lungs" among them.  That being said, listening to an hour and a half of Townes Van Zandt can get a tad-bit monotonous.  His plaintive, detached, quavering vocals display a journalists' distance from his material.  There's also not much variety in his playing, which generally relies on "finger-picking."  When he does mix it up, he defers to talking blues (such as "Talking Thunderbird Blues" and his apprentice song "Fraternity Blues") or to dull jokes.  By Side Three, the listener stops paying all that much attention.  However, by the fourth Side, Van Zandt hits his stride with a string of his better compositions (and a fun take on Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love").

 

Though this is not my favorite Townes Van Zandt album (I prefer his self-titled 1969 LP), for many people, this is the only one of his albums you'll need.  On it, we hear some of the greatest songs of the twentieth century.

 

 (EXCERPT FROM AN ANONYMOUS ONLINE REVIEW)

 

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CONDITION:

 

                                                                                                                      THE RECORDS:

 

(IMPORTANT NOTE: unless otherwise noted, ALL records are graded visually, and NOT play-graded!; we  grade records under the strong, diffuse room light or discrete sunlight)

 

(a)          WE GRADE THE VINYL AS NEAR MINT. The original luster is very much intact, and the vinyl shines and sparkles almost like new.

 

(b)            The records are pressed on a beautiful, thick, inflexible vinyl, which was usually used for the first or very early pressings. Usually, the sound on such thick vinyl pressings is full-bodied, vivid, and even dramatic. Do not expect to obtain such a majestic analog sound from a digital recording!

 

(c)             The records comes in poly-lined inner sleeves, which have - apparently with success - shielded the vinyl from the harmful impact of elements over many years!

 

(d)          Of course, this is a full-bodied ANALOG recording, and not an inferior, digital recording!!!

 

 

·                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 THE COVER

 

COVER IS STRONG NEAR MINT,  STILL IN ITS ORIGINAL ►SHRINK WRAP  (A SMALL PIECE OF SHRINK WRAP IS MISSING)

 

 

NO SIGNIFICANT FLAWS OR IMPERFECTIONS ON THE  COVER

 

 

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POSTAGE & SHIPPING:

 

We offer THREE postage rates for both Domestic and International Mail: Media Mail, Priority Mail and Express Mail for domestic, and First Class, Priority International Mail, and Express International Mail for international orders. INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS PLEASE NOTE: WE RECOMMEND (BUT DO NOT INSIST) that you select USPS International Priority Mail OR International Express mail when making a payment.

 

INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE rates vary from one region of  the world to another. For SPECIFIC international and domestic postage rates ►. While you can be rest assured that our packaging is careful, sturdy and impact-proof, please note that damage, loss or theft in transit is always possible, and in the case of some countries even PROBABLE. To discuss this potential problem and ensure flawless delivery, please contact us thru eBay BEFORE placing a bid.

 

 

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 (1) The year indicated in the title bar is the year of the original release,  NOT necessarily the year of the actual pressing; for the actual generation of the pressing, please see our item description (top section, text in red letters). (2) Please do NOT bid based on the title bar, subtitle bar or item specifics box alone; instead, please read the entire description and grading before bidding; (3) Absolutely NO order cancellations after the auction closes. ever, under any circumstances. We can ONLY cancel bids before the item closes. (4) We are unable to cancel bids in the final 12 hours of the auction; if you need to do so, please contact eBay for help (5) We are unable to provide matrix-, stamper- or other pressing  information in the final 24 hours of the auction. If you require this information, please contact us well before the final day of the auction. (6) Yes, we DO combine shipments. Please click on "Shipping and Payment" tab on top of the auction page for additional details. (7)  All Paypal payments must be made from confirmed Paypal shipping addresses. NO third party shipping addresses will be honored  (8) Absolutely NO partial refunds: if you are unhappy with the merchandise you received, please return it for a full refund, postage included (9). Civilized people can disagree without accusing each other of being indecent or dishonest; if you need proof of this seller's personal integrity, please check our eBay feedback, which speaks for itself  (10) All disagreements and miscommunications can be - and will only be - solved in a civil and mutually respectful manner;  please avoid puerile, offensive, abrasive or menacing language (attempted humor is fine and usually appreciated, although overused-to-death sarcasms can be really, really tedious. (11) This seller will accommodate all reasonable requests and is generally a flexible and agreeable person (12) Our love & appreciation for your trust, loyalty and business, always and forever;  Thank You & Good Night!

 

 

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