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

Kasey Chambers

kasey Chambers Loop and Lil agree she’s a sight to see And a treasure for the poor to find —TVZ, “If I Needed You,” from The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt k asey Chambers’s confessional lyrics typically favor dark recesses rather than rustic idylls. Chambers, born June 4, 1976, in Mount Gambier, South Australia, learned early lessons from kindred spirits under the freedom of an open sky. “Our family sang Hank Williams and Gram Parsons songs to each other,” says the songwriter, who was raised on mobile campsites for her first nine years Kasey Chambers, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Telluride, CO, June 20, 2003 176 I’ll Be Here In THe MornInG while her musician father earned a living as a foxhunter on Australia’s desolateNullarborPlain.1 ChamberslaterdiscoveredTownesVanZandt. “‘Tecumseh Valley’ is such a great song,” she says, “and I knew ‘Pancho and Lefty’ from Emmylou [Harris] playing it.”2 The Chambers family—parents Bill and Diane with Kasey and older brother Nash—formed The Dead Ringer Band in the early 1990s, and albums such as Red Desert Sky (1993), Home Fires (1995), and Living in the Circle (1997) closely reflected those early country influences. Moreover, Bill and Kasey’s duet on Van Zandt’s signature tune “If I Needed You” (from Living in the Circle) helped catch an influential ear. “It was like the first night I heard Townes in 1966,” says Van Zandt’s former manager John Lomax III, grandson of legendary folklorist John Lomax. “The Dead Ringers had . . . all the things Nashville has forgotten: honesty, purity, simplicity, and lovely harmonies.”3 Kasey’s inspired delivery and engaging “ability to convey to contradictory emotions at once” proved the key.4 Kasey Chambers’s solo debut The Captain (1999) launched her own highlysuccessfulcareerinAustralia,andwordswiftlyspreadthroughout Americana circles and beyond. “Kasey Chambers is probably the best female hillbilly singer I’ve heard in a long, long time,” Steve Earle said after listening to the album.5 The Captain stuck relatively closely to The Dead Ringer Band’s format, but Chambers became one of Australia’s most popular radio stars of the new millennium with the increasingly pop- and rock-oriented albums Barricades and Brickwalls (2002), Wayward Angel (2004), and Carnival (2006). Nevertheless, Americans continue to identify Chambers with her earlier alternative country sound. “My career in Australia is so different than it is in America,” she says. “A lot of my success [in Australia] has come from outside of country music. I’ve had Number One pop singles, and it’s a different audience. Here they want to hear me play what’s on the radio, whereas I don’t have that problem in America.”6 Kasey Chambers and singer-songwriter husband Shane Nicholson’s largelyacousticfolk-basedcollaboration Rattlin’Bones(2008)earnedtwo kASey CHAMBerS 177 nominations at the Americana Music Association awards in 2009.7 “We wanted to make a record that was like the music we listen to at home— PattyGriffin,BuddyandJulie[Miller]andBobDylanandJimmyLaFave,” Chamberssays.8 Songssuchas“SweetestWasteofTime,”“Wildflower,” and “One More Year,” particularly channel their shared influences. In concert,Chambersoccasionallyindulgesarequestfor“IfINeededYou,” which she recorded for the album Storybook (2011). “In Australia, it’s not very often that you get asked to play Townes Van Zandt songs,” she says. “So,whensomeonesays,‘CanyouplayaTownessong?’you’relike,‘Oh, cool, I’d much rather play that.’”9 • • • kasey Chambers I was actually a bit late with the whole Townes thing. I think just by being in Australia, we just didn’t really hear that stuff very much. It was probably about ten years ago now that we first sort of started hearing his stuff. It was through my manager at the time, John Lomax, who lives in Nashville. He sent us some CDs, and we started listening to him just after the last time he toured to Australia. The first time I’d ever heard Townes sing, or the first time I knew of Townes’s writing, was “Pancho and Lefty.” Lyrically, that song is amazing . My dad had a little 45 of him doing that song. It was just him and an acousticguitar,andtherewasn’tabandoranything.Heplayedthatsong, and I just fell in love with it. I listened to his version so much more than I listenedtoEmmylou’s.Nottotakeanythingawayfromherversion—it’s beautiful—but there was just something about this amazing voice that sounded so raw. There are some off notes on there, but it just sounded so cool. That’s what I put on...