Steve Earle and Townes Van Zandt

The Quote: “Something Steve Earle said about Townes Van Zandt a long time ago continues to be a source of much discussion. The exact quote: “Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”

“I was asked for a blurb [for a Townes album], and that’s what I said,” he explains. “It was literally a sticker. Do I believe that he was a better writer than Bob Dylan? No. Do I believe he deserves to be talked about in the same breath as Bob Dylan? Yes. And I think Bob Dylan does, too. I was opening for Dylan in 1988, and the first night I was on the tour Bob played ‘Pancho and Lefty.’”

The Source: http://www.theboot.com

New to Townes Van Zandt? Start Here: Any of Townes’ albums would be a fine place to start. We at RockTorch especially like Townes’ collection of him covering the work of other great artists, Roadsongs. But you have to start with Townes’ heart-wrenching originals, right? Legend is a collection that lives up to its name and serves as the perfect crash course into the archives of one of America’s greatest songwriters. A listen to Loretta and No Place to Fall will send your mind racing through a myriad of alt-country legends who have borrowed from Townes in one way or another.

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