Message: 3 Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 02:08:44 +1100 From: "David Graham" Subject: Review of a JT Van Zandt show in Camden England 17-October-2004 http://www.americana-uk.com/html/live_reviews.html John Townes Van Zandt - Come Down & Meet the Folks, The Fiddlers Elbow, Camden - 17th October 2004 Review by Pete Gow 'Come Down & Meet the Folks' is one of those events that you just can't buy in the shops anymore. Over the years the great & the good of country, folk, roots & blues music have turned up at the request of host & one time Rockingbird, Alan Tyler & played to one of London's more enthusiastic & informed audiences. All for what ever can be begged or cajoled into a pint glass passed, like a collection box, around the bar. Ironically it is at gigs such as these that Townes Van Zandt honed his craft, cementing his reputation as a master writer, performer & storyteller. The greatest musician that you have never heard of, so to speak. So high was his stock, that one time proté, Steve Earle, told Bob Dylan that he would stand on his coffee table and jump up & down his cowboy boots until he agreed that Townes was the superior song writer. It is the spectre of the late Van Zandt, who died on New Years Day 1997, that hangs heavy over this corner of North London for a performance by his eldest son, John Townes Van Zandt. Pre- show, he makes his way around the bar on a merry go round of meet 'n' greets; It is a spectre that everyone is doing their best to deny, but is no less real in spite of spirited efforts at side- stepping the issue. The first thing that registers is the uncanny physical resemblance between the two men. John is strikingly attractive, slightly more athletic than his father, his face a chiselled replica of a twenty three year old Townes. In performance he is no less engaging, holding the attention of an eager crowd to a virtual silence for over an hour. His guitar style & vocal performance, quite understandably, draws from the family tradition. But his phrasing, delivery & between song banter also have a sense of hand- me- down. In fairness neither his playing or singing is as good as his father, but the overall package is one of incredible deja vu. This, it transpires, will be the only London show from the Texan who is an infrequent, bordering on reluctant, performer. Usually confining his music to being sat around at home with friends, or on fishing trips, he appears almost baffled by the turn out of mainly strangers. While he has no official release available, there is a live recording of JT (as he known among friends & paying customers) at a bar in Texas, & much of tonight's set was taken from this record. He does not appear to write a great deal, but what he does utilises an all too familiar style of imagery & skipping poetic wordplay, 'Come Down' and 'Take Me While I'm Strong' being the strongest of these on offer tonight. The test, of course, would be how he would choose to exorcise the ghost of his own father. Would he simply be a Townes Van Zandt juke- box, trading off the family name in a grotesque parody? Or, perhaps, refuse to acknowledge his legacy and kid himself into believing that no- one would notice or care? Neither. He tended to the sensitive nature of his heritage with a stoic dignity that was evident in all aspects of this performance. Five or six songs in he smiled broadly and said 'I think I'll do a Townes song for you now' before delivering my personal favourite, 'Rex's Blues'. Before the night was over we were treated to three or four more from the old mans song- book, Lightning Hopkins 'How Long', who he said was the greatest blues guitar player ever, and a heart wrenching reading of Steve Earle's 'Fort Worth Blues', written to commemorate the passing of Townes, his closest friend & one time mentor. Having seen Earle perform the song shortly after it was written, & then seeing JT deliver such an emotive version, I have to be honest, got the better of me; I was forced into making a fairly unsuccessful attempt at swallowing back some tears. The enduring image I took out into the Camden evening, however, is that of the young Van Zandt moving a captivated audience to an almost uncomfortable silence while performing 'Tecumseh Valley'. For those three minutes, probably Townes' finest, the Fiddlers Elbow made the seismic shift from a gig to a happening. Simply stunning. I make no apologies for the same spectre hanging heavy over this review but the experience of watching this man play with the spirit of his father literally coursing through him was too significant to play down. Not the freak show it could, or perhaps should have been, but a magnificent, emotional performance by a musician who has shown in spite of the ever present albatross around his neck, he is more than capable of standing firmly on his own two feet - Once everyone has stopped staring. PG