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

Chorus: Ben Nichols

Chorus ben niCHols And now the dark air is like fire on my skin And even the moonlight is blinding —TVZ, “Rake,” from Delta Momma Blues B en Nichols, bornAugust 2, 1974,in LittleRock,Arkansas,has fortified his band Lucero’s seven studio albums—including Lucero (2001), Nobody’s Darlings (2005), and Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers (2006)—with young, working-class narrators striving for better days. His hardscrabble barroom vignettes frequently highlight Ben Nichols, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Austin, TX, October 9, 2010 Townes Van Zandt at Liberty Hall, Houston, Texas, June 4, 1977. Photos © 1977 by Ken Hoge, www.kenhoge.com 100 CHoruS relentless resolve recoveringbrokenhopes.1 Lucero’s recent album 1372 Overton Park (2009) tempers garage rock (“Sixes and Sevens”) and Memphis soul (“Darken My Door”) with gentler ballads, such as the Townes VanZandt–inspired“HeyDarlin’DoYouGamble.”“Ibelieveyoushould run with me / Until this Texas sun falls into the sea,” Nichols sings on the latter. “If I shed this skin of iron and this breath of kerosene / Darlin’ would you take a chance on me?”2 “I’m very much drawn to Townes’s music,” Nichols says. “I have a soft spot for the softer, darker, sad stuff, and no one really does that any betterthanTownes.AsmuchasItrytoemulatethat,Ican’tgetanywhere close. He was coming from a very particular place in a lot of those songs. I’m probably coming from a similar place, but I try to get there and just can’t. I still listen to him all the time, even when I’m in a good mood. “Some of his lines are just poetry, but it’s the kind of poetry that you’d hear from an old guy down at the end of the bar. It makes sense that his Townes Van Zandt at Liberty Hall. Photo © 1977 by Ken Hoge, www.kenhoge.com Ben nICHolS 101 lyrics are pretty straightforward—they’re something that everybody can relatetoandareputinsuchabeautifulbutsimpleway.That’ssomething I’ve strived to do. “I found the song ‘Hey Darlin’ Do You Gamble?’ in that excellent Townes documentary Be Here To Love Me. His third wife tells the story about sitting at a bar when [Van Zandt] walks up and says, ‘Hey, darlin,’ do you gamble?’ She’s like, ‘Dear Lord, don’t let this be the one’, but it was. As soon as I heard that line—‘Hey darlin,’ do you gamble?’—I was like, ‘Man, I’m stealing that.’”3 ...