I'll Be Here in the Morning: The Songwriting Legacy of Townes Van Zandt

Tom Russell

Tom russell So, I reach for her hand, and her eyes turn to poison And her hair turns to splinters and her flesh turns to brine —TVZ, “Our Mother the Mountain,” from Our Mother the Mountain T om Russell, born March 5, 1953, in Los Angeles, California, hasaneclecticbackgroundthatincludescriminologystudent, taxi driver, folk artist, art collector, and regular correspondent with late Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski, detailed in the book Tough Company (2008). In Bukowski, who wrote frankly and often comically about those destitute and down-and-out as well as his own employment at several menial labor jobs, Russell found a kindred spirit. Both writers employ protagonists who calculate time by number of daydreams Tom Russell, Kerrville Folk Festival, Kerrville, TX, May 25, 2008. Courtesy Susan Roads 58 I’ll Be Here In THe MornInG between the morning alarm clock and afternoon shift bell. “Bukowski wrote about the working-class life with a fresh, outrageously honest viewpoint,”Russellsays.“ItwasaveryEuropeanapproach,likeCeline— hardcore and hip and irreverent. The best of Bukowski resonates with truth.”1 Russell, who has lived many places including Nigeria, Spain, and Norway, moved from Vancouver to seek his own truths in Central Texas in the 1970s. He and pianist Patricia Hardin released two albums that contained a “cosmic folk” mix of Beat poetry and Southwestern-style music.2 During that time, Russell occasionally ran in similar circles as Townes Van Zandt, whose song “Snowin’ on Raton” he later recorded with Gretchen Peters on the albumOne to the Heart, One to the Head (2009). “ImetTownesonandoffinthelate1970swhenIlivedinAustin,”Russell says. “My first impression was that he was a shape-shifting, half-breed, Navajo trickster.”3 Tom Russell’s own songs have been recorded by a variety of notable country artists, including Johnny Cash (“Veteran’s Day”), Suzy Bogguss (“Outbound Plane”), Nanci Griffith (“Canadian Whiskey”), Doug Sahm (“St. Olav’s Gate”), and Joe Ely (“Gallo de Cielo”). He’s closely linked to Southern California songwriter Dave Alvin, who recorded and regularly performs Russell’s “Blue Wing,” a song that displays the songwriter’s sharp economy of language. “Writing with Tom is remarkably easy,” saysAlvin,whomatchedwitswithRussellonthesongs“Haley’sComet” and “California Snow.” “We both think similarly. Of course, we’ll write a song and then have an argument—a friendly argument—over a word. If you listen to Tom sing it later, he’ll be using the word he wanted, and in mine I’ll use the one I wanted. Everybody wins.”4 Russell’scarefullyplottedstorysongsparallelsongwriterssuchasGuy Clark,RayWylieHubbard,andRobertEarlKeen,buthislyricalaimdraws straighterlinestomorepoliticallymindedartistssuchasSteveEarleand KrisKristofferson.5 Forinstance,“CaliforniaSnow”reports“atruestory about a California border agent who finds a husband and wife frozen to death while trying to cross the border.”6 “There’s a Mexican dead on a ToM ruSSell 59 power line / He’s deader than yesterday’s communion wine,” sings the current El Paso, Texas, resident on the similarly focused ballad “Stealing Electricity.” “He’s trying to get something he could not afford for free / Just a poor man stealing electricity.”7 Beat poet Laurence Ferlinghetti recited “Stealing Electricity” on the Russell tribute album Wounded Heart of America (2007). Tom Russell personalized his focus on immigration with the folk opera The Man from God Knows Where (1999), a “bizarre soundscape” based on his family’s move from Ireland and Norway, and politicized it withthealbumBorderland(2001).RussellrecordedBloodandCandleSmoke (2009), an album based on his studies in criminology and time living in Africa, with the Tucson, Arizona, band Calexico. One writer reviewing the album effectively described Russell’s entire catalogue: “Maybe the CD’s message is that there is no such thing as untroubled times or an untroubled mind.”8 • • • Tom russell I heard Townes in Austin in person in the mid-1970s when he was playing the joints. I recall having an LP of The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt and thinking“PanchoandLefty”wasanodd,cubistcowboysong.Thenthere was “Our Mother the Mountain.” I thought he had tapped into some deep level of folk myth I wasn’t aware of. I always thought Townes was some sort of beat-up bronc rider from Gallup, New Mexico. I had no idea he came from Dallas wealth, had played high school football, and all that. I can identify with his past, now, and the mental health deal. In the end, he was a minstrel—he had that vibe—like he walked right out of a Chaucer poem. IneverreallyhungoutwithTownes.Isaidhelloandchatted.Iwasshy aroundguyslikethatwhenIwaslearningthetrade.Hechallengedmeto a foot race, once. While I was taking off my...