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Saturday 4 January 2020

50 Americana Albums You Should Hear Before You Die - Flyin' Shoes





Townes Van Zandt on the 1st of January and now on the 4th.
Such are the vagaries of  a randon number selection given that he could have popped up any time this year.

There are seven Townes album's on the shelves, four vinyl and three CDs. There is one live one, three original studio albums and three compilations/best ofs (a huge number of which have appeared since his passing on 1st January 1997).

I don't think that there is one classic album that stands out from all the others. It would be interesting to hear the views of others on this.
I've gone for Flyin' Shoes from 1978 on the Tomato label, one I picked up in the sadly long departed Echo record shop on Glasgow's Byres Road. I could be wrong but I think all the vinyl ones came from there.
His first album of original material in five years.
It includes what is probably my favourite song of his in Loretta. This gives me an excuse to once more repeat this story from when I saw him in the County Hotel, Perth. I'd previously seen him at King Tuts

A troubled genius and one of the last hard core troubadours and an artist who influenced many of the other artists who will appear in this series.

Another one next Saturday.

Townes Van Zandt - Loretta

Townes Van Zandt - Flyin' Shoes

9 comments:

  1. No Townes on my shelves. But Flying Shoes is a very very good song. Maybe my christmas token for the tax dodgers might be spent on this album

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  2. Excellent start to the series, CC, looking forward to the next 49.

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  3. I do love a random number selector but anything but random sometimes in the way it turns out.

    A fine series for a new year and a great set of songs to start with.

    Happy New Year CC as I don't think I've said it yet.

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  4. By the way, are you aware that your random number generator is not, actually, truly random?

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    1. No, but I'm sure you'll tell my why

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    2. beyond my understanding, but I remember a colleague (pre teaching) taking 6 months of research to write a computer program that actually did create randomness.

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  5. A worthy first choice. I have this one. I'm not really sure there is an album that stands out above all the rest, both those are two fine songs.

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  6. Blimey, this sets the bar high.

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  7. My vote goes to Flying Shoes....... haha I'm still thinking of your thread from last year. Sweet track though.

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