<a href="http://tamarasaviano.com/ill-be-here-in-the-morning-the-songwriting-legacy-of-townes-van-zandt-3/">via Tamara Zavino</a>

Fifteen years on,<strong> Brian T. Atkinson’s I’ll Be Here in the Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt </strong>spotlights the elegant (“To Live’s To Fly”) and engaging (“For the Sake of the Song”) lyricist’s significant impact on songwriting peers and followers. “‘Pancho and Lefty’ changed—it unchained—my idea of what a song could be,” folk icon John Gorka says midway through the new book, a tightly woven collection of more than 40 interviews with artists deeply impacted by Van Zandt’s singular poetry.

Several living legends – including Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Kris Kristofferson, Lyle Lovett and Lucinda Williams – analyze Van Zandt’s breathtakingly beautiful lyrics throughout the book and share poignant stories of witnessing the troubled troubadour’s rise and fall. Atkinson doubles down on these recollections with new insight from younger artists such as My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, The Avett Brothers’ Scott Avett, Grace Potter, Josh Ritter and Kasey Chambers to present a nuanced view of Van Zandt’s unparalleled body of work, his reckless lifestyle and his long-lasting influence.

More on the book at <a href="http://www.towneslegacy.com/">Townes Legacy</a>

<strong>"Waiting Around To Die"</strong>
[audio:http://www.thisissomewhere.com/audio/waitingaroundtodie.mp3]

<a href="http://www.thisissomewhere.com/2010/01/04/townes-van-zandt-influences/">Past history</a>

<blockquote>“I was driving through Southern Vermont,” recalls jam goddess/rocker Grace Potter, who’s been cited for her own allegorical and deeply personal writing. “It was the summer I got my driver’s license, so this was a total freedom drive. I didn’t need to be anywhere and I was just driving.

“There was a cassette in this pile that said ‘Townes,’ and I had no idea. I didn’t know whose it was… just figured it was some show at Town Hall. But I put it in and ‘Waiting Around To Die’ played, and I couldn’t even drive. I had to pull over because it was so full of pain, but so beautiful at the same time. There was no anger, just this voice letting it go, just put it out there… So poetic that suffering.

“I’d been digging Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, but this was something else. I mean, he’d bunk up at Motel 6s, eat at Denny’s every day, drink himself silly and sing until he fell over… he was that pure and that committed to doing it.</blockquote>