Townes Van Zandt sought conclusion in all the confusion to stop the pain of dreams denied to the false and the fair in the natural wonder and simple truth of this serious folk poetry. After the release of his debut 'For the Sake of the Song' , Van Zandt hit the road with his friend Bob Myrick and his new manager Kevin Eggers on a cross country vision quest from New York to Malibu.
Van Zandt would look back on his wanderlust: “Just wild times and a disregard for things, crazy stuff, wild chances...Lots of booze and gambling as the song says, Wild Living...Like a lot of folks I was a person who couldn’t do things halfway. Now I can play guitar better and I’m not crazy all the time. I used to go right to the edge and I’m not sure where all that came from...Now I know how to handle the blues a lot better, but because of all that travelling and this and that you can get real alone. I’m just not as alone now. Maybe that was just a phase and this is a more comfortable one...I guess I’m more optimistic because of my son Will, but to me it doesn’t make any difference. I’m still not...run-of-the-mill...you know? I’m kind of joyfully pessimistic and I don’t have real severe attacks of manic depression any more...I’ve always loved the mountains and I’d still be doing that, but I have responsibilities now...It’s not the same but I did that [riding into the mountains] for years and years and I’d keep a horse somewhere around and just take off."
As with his debut, 'Our Mother the Mountain' was produced by Jim Malloy and Cowboy Jack Clement with the addition of Kevin Eggers. Basic tracks were recorded at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles with strings added later in Nashville. The album credits Ben Bennay on harmonica; James Burton on guitar and dobro; John Clauder and Donald Frost on drums; Jack Clement, David Cohen, and Mike Deasy Sr. on guitar; Chuck Domanico, Harvey Newmark, and Lyle Ritz on bass and guitar; Jules Jacob on flute; Charlie McCoy on bass, guitar, harmonica, and keyboards; Don Randi on keyboards; and Townes Van Zandt on vocals and guitar. Also similarly to 'For the Sake of the Song', the strings and extra instrumentation tend to distract from the immediacy of the songs. It was Clement's intention to make Van Zandt's music more palatable for the country music establishment in Nashville. It didn't work. 'Our Mother the Mountain' never charted.
Van Zandt would consider: “For a folk singer, which I consider myself, I've done well. I’ve never i tried to be a straight country singer and never had a country band. Back when I was deciding I figured I wasn't the sort to dress up and play country fairs, but for a folk singer it was a whole different circuit...It’s nice my songs fit into country music and that's where I’ve been classified. The records are classified like that too, everything has to be classified I guess."
http://townesvanzandt.com/
"Be Here to Love Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6NPj9M_p20
"Kathleen"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIi4cAK1vik
"She Came and She Touched Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ntAnGSeeCE
"Like A Summer Thursday"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qadKIvx3mc
"Our Mother The Mountain"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW4XgQvcDsQ
My lover comes to me with a rose on her bosom
The moon's dancin' purple
All through her black hair
And a ladies-in-waiting she stands 'neath my window
And the sun will rise soon
On the false and the fair
She tells me she comes from my mother the mountain
Her skin fits her tightly
And her lips do not lie
She silently slips from her throat a medallion
Slowly she twirls it
In front of my eyes
I watch her, I love her, I long for to touch her
The satin she's wearin'
Is shimmering blue
Outside my window her ladies are sleeping
My dogs have gone hunting
The howling is through
So I reach for her hand and her eyes turns to poison
And her hair turns to splinters,
And her flesh turns to brine
She leaps cross the room, she stands in the window
And screams that my first-born
Will surely be blind
She throws herself out to the black of the nightfall
She's parted her lips
But she makes not a sound
I fly down the stairway, and I run to the garden
No trace of my true love
Is there to be found
So walk these hills lightly, and watch who you're lovin'
By mother the mountain
I swear that it's true
Love not a woman with hair black as midnight
And her dress made of satin
All shimmering blue
"Second Lovers Song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuyP_yP-Rbo
"St. John The Gambler"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUnoTTjx9dY
Tecumseh was a remake of "Tecumseh Valley" from the debut, which had been edited in attempt to make it more radio friendly. Van Zandt revealed: “A lot of times you can write songs and they come true. There have been songs I didn‘t write because I was afraid they might come true, kind of sad songs that I didn't want to hear. I have a couple of songs about my wife written way before I met her. I believe that can happen. I don’t believe you can sit down like voodoo and conjure up thing -- but you could write a song that set a path that something would take to happen and people near the song and started thinking about it and so that path was taken. You might write something like that...but I barely understand this world much less the next...I found out later that ['Tecumseh Valley'] was all true down to where the town was and where the mountains were. The only difference was I though it would be in West Virginia but it was in Oklahoma."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDSPPzfECvU
The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her
She came from Spencer
Across the hill
She said her pa had sent her
'cause the coal was low
And soon the snow
Would turn the skies to winter
She said she'd come
To look for work
She was not seeking favors
And for a dime a day
And a place to stay
She'd turn those hands to labor
But the times were hard, Lord,
The jobs were few
All through Tecumseh valley
But she asked around
And a job she found
Tending bar at Gypsy Sally's
She saved enough to get back home
When spring replaced the winter
But her dreams were denied
Her pa had died
The word come down from Spencer
So she turned to whorin' out on the streets
With all the lust inside her
And it was many a man
Returned again
To lay himself beside her
They found her down beneath the stairs
That led to Gypsy Sally's
In her hand when she died
Was a note that cried
Fare thee well
Tecumseh valley
The name she gave was Caroline
Daughter of a miner
Her ways were free
It seemed to me
That sunshine walked beside her
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7_oQU2vuUQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rq5GsZHd0Y
"Snake Mountain Blues"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytpX_v2dPq4
"My Proud Mountains"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3C8Nm9aYq4
"Why She's Acting This Way"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFxv0gc5Mc
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