Live at the Old Quarter

Townes Van Zandt

album cover

The Poet at His Peak

Among those who love the late Texas singer and songwriter Townes Van Zandt, debates rage about which album is his best, and whether or not he was more persuasive when he was sober, drunk, or getting there. . . .

Read the full entry on pages 801–802 in the book 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die.

Genre: Country
Released: 1973, Tomato (Reissued 2008, Fat Possum)
Key Tracks: “Pancho & Lefty,” “To Live Is to Fly,” “For the Sake of the Song,” “Waiting ’Round to Die”
Catalog Choice: High, Low, and In Between
Next Stop: Gram Parsons: GP/Grievous Angel
After That: Jimmie Dale Gilmore: After Awhile
Book Pages: 801–802

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About 1,000 Recordings

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music.

Essential operas. Milestone rock albums. An education in the blues. The world of world. Classical from Bach to Bartók to Beethoven to Brahms. And dozens of unexpected gems, surprising discoveries, and long-lost masterpieces.

This is an online version of the list (published alphabetically in the book). The entries in the book break down genre bias and broaden every listener’s horizons—think Miles Davis to Claude Debussy to the melodic story-songs of The Decemberists. And the writing is passionate, informed, opinionated.

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