3. Townes is referring to “Snow Don’t Fall.” See Paul Zollo,
Songwriters
on Songwriting.
4. Joe Gracey, from correspondence with the author, June 2002. The resulting Kimmie Rhodes album,
West Texas Heaven
(1996) is highly recommended.
5. Some tracks were eventually released in 2002 on
Absolutely Nothing
, on Normal Records.
6. Jim Calvin, Bob Moore, and Claudia Winterer all confirm the story of and the existence of the bruise, from the author’s interviews and correspondence.
7. The accounts of Townes’ last weeks related in this chapter are from the author’s interviews with Jim Calvin, Royann Calvin, Susanna Clark, Jimmy Gingles, and Bob Moore, plus the account in “Townes last moments—report from Jeanene,” Aug. 2 1997, http://ippc2.orst.
edu/coopl/tvznotice4.html.
Endnotes
285
8. Matt Hanks, “A Gentleman and a Shaman: The Last Days and Sad Death of Townes Van Zandt,”
No Depression
, Jan.–Feb. 1999.
9. Titles of the songs Townes intended to record include “Harm’s Swift Way,” “Old Satan,” “Carolina,” “Southern Cross,” “The Meadowlark,” “Apt. 213,” “Cascade,” “The Deer,” and “Long Ball Hitter.”
10. The attending physician, Dr. Michael McHugh, noting that his patient is a “chronic alcoholic,” reported that “The patient did have alcohol on his breath at the time that he consented to the surgery, however, his wife was present and he did seem to be understanding of the description.” A handwritten note initialed by the doctor and dated 1/20/97 says “Later I found out she was actually his ex-wife.”
11. Will Van Zandt, interview by Ruth Sanders.
12. This could have been a seizure from alcohol withdrawal, indicating that Townes could not “sip” enough to get his blood alcohol level high enough.
13. Forensic specialists consulted on general background regarding the autopsy report include a chief medical examiner, a forensic chemist, and a professor of medicine and law at a major school of medicine.
14. The autopsy and the autopsy report are problematic, having been conducted and reported not by the Davidson County Medical Examiner, but by Dr. Miles J. Jones, an Indiana pathologist working with a private company, Forensic Medical, to whom the county had contracted its autopsies. An article in
The Tennessean
, “Public Autopsies in Private Hands,” August 1, 1999, details the many serious problems that this arrangement engendered.
15. The diphenhydramine in Townes’ system at the time of his death has been a matter of some controversy. The 0.62 ug/mL level listed in the toxicology report indicates that Townes took more than four Tylenol P.M. tablets. Jeanene Van Zandt later recounted that “I went to his nightstand drawer and found a bottle of antihistamines from Europe and all I can figure out is that while I was at the store for the Tylenol he must have found them and thought they were pain pills and took a bunch and it freaked his heart out.” (“Townes last moments—report from Jeanene,” Aug. 2, 1997, http://ippc2.orst.edu/
coopl/tvznotice4.html.)
Jeanene, in a post on her public e-mail discussion site, later expanded on this story, calling the pills in question “Harold’s antihistamines”
and saying “Harold [Eggers] had the allergies and the labels were in German and somehow when they parted ways after the last tour Townes’ Ibuprophen, which he took almost every day got switched for Harold’s allergy medicine and ended up in his nightstand drawer which was the only place he could have gotten them from while I was at the store buying him what he needed.…” (http://groups.ya-hoo.com/group/AboutTownes.)
However, Jim Calvin recalls, “But Royann, to this day, she’ll tell you there wasn’t no damn pills in there, she had just cleaned that whole place just a day or two before, and there weren’t any kind of pills of
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A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt
any sort in there.” Royann, in fact, reports: “[Jeanene] claims there was a bottle of European-made Benadryl in his drawer. I know for absolute certain that there was not. Because I cleaned everywhere; I even knew where her little hiding place in the bottom of his thing was, and I looked in there even, and I dusted and moved the table.…
So I know for a fact that that did not exist.”
The Calvins’ recollections do not preclude the possibility that, in the brief time he was at Bayou Self when he dropped Townes there before being driven to the airport to catch his flight back to Austin, Harold Eggers might have left a bottle of pills in Townes’ drawer, for whatever reason, or somehow by mistake. But, Jim Calvin makes this further observation: “Hell, [Townes] wasn’t capable of grabbing any pills. Not unless somebody gave them to him and stuck them in his mouth. He was having trouble enough hitting his face with his pieces of roast beef and cheese. He was too weak to hardly do anything like that, I don’t think. But I don’t know.”
16. By all accounts, Lara Fisher was Townes’ fourth child—his second-oldest—unacknowledged except through the exclusionary gesture in the final version of his Last Will and Testament. The following recollections of three of Townes’ friends are relevant to this statement:
“I know he had a will, and I know he cut his illegitimate daughter out. You should probably try to find that little girl and ask her what she feels about having such a famous daddy who treated her like shit. It was his blood relative. Townes had no reason to treat this kid bad. If you saw her, you could tell that she’s his kid. I know Jeanene had him cut her out because she didn’t want to have to deal with it.”
—Peggy Underwood, author’s interview.
“He told me that he had an illegitimate daughter, and this had all happened with a woman he just met at a gig somewhere—in Texas or Louisiana, I think—and that the mother didn’t want anything from him, but he was so upset about Jeanene taking her out of his will.
He was a good man, you know, and wanted to provide for this kid, but she wouldn’t allow it. This was not long before he died. He was so angry, and so sad, really. She was a teenager at the time, when he talked to me about her. It just went against everything he wanted, to cut her out like that.” —Bianca DeLeon, author’s interview.
“He told me this chick came up to him at a gig one time, and just told him she was madly in love with him and wanted to have his child. And they jumped in the truck and did it, and it worked, and she came back about eight months later, pot-bellied, and said, ‘It worked, and we’re gonna have a baby, and I’m not gonna bother you or anything, but I thought you might want to know that you got a kid out there.’ And he was not overjoyed, because he’d never had time to really think about it, she just would pop up and leave.
And then she showed up about seven years later, with this little girl.
And she showed up at the funeral, but nobody spoke to her. Cindy also showed up at the funeral and no one spoke to her. I didn’t know Endnotes
287
either one of them, and I had Claudia with me, so nobody would speak to me. But he made his will, and wrote this child into his will, and Jeanene would not abide by it. This child was supposed to get some money, at some point, somehow, and Jeanene wouldn’t hear of it. But there is a fourth child out there that he knew about and was happy to know about, and when he told me that [mid-1996], he said she must be about sixteen now. And he said the kid was undeniably his, just from the face. I know for a fact that he wanted to provide for that child, and wrote up papers. But Jeanene didn’t go by what he wanted with that.” —Royann Calvin, author’s interview.
17. From the Richard Dobson Archive: http://nativetexas.com/_dobson/
archive.html#35.
18. Actually, Jeanene had Townes’ body cremated in Nashville; she kept some of the ashes, so only the remaining ashes were buried in Dido.
The other family members in the plot as of the time of the author’s visit on January 1, 2001, were H. P. Williams, March 18, 1866–July 25, 1904; William Lipscomb Van Zandt, February 3, 1875–April 8, 1948; Bell Williams Van Zandt, June 30, 1882–February 24, 1965; Infant Twins, December 6, 1904; Martha Ann Van Zandt Perryman, May 19, 1908–February 10, 1998; Jack Van Zandt, February 8, 1911–November 20, 1916.
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A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt
Audio and Video
Sources
The following listing documents Townes Van Zandt’s recorded legacy
in its original form, as first presented on his “official” U.S. album
releases (not including reissues) and on various live recordings and
collections issued on labels in the U.S. and Europe during Townes’
lifetime and within the first decade following his death.
Date
Title
Producer
Label/Catalog #
1968
For the Sake of
Jack Clement/
Poppy/PYS 40001
the Song
Jim Malloy
1969
Our Mother the
Kevin Eggers/
Poppy/PYS 40004
Mountain
Jack Clement/
Jim Malloy
1970
Townes Van
Kevin Eggers/
Poppy/PYS 40007
Zandt
Jim Malloy
1971
Delta Momma
Ron Frangipane Poppy/PYS 40012
Blues
1972
High, Low, and
Kevin Eggers
Poppy/PYS 5700
In Between
1972
The Late, Great
Jack Clement/
Poppy/PP-LA004
Townes Van
Kevin Eggers
Zandt
1977
Live at the Old
Earl Willis
Tomato/
Quarter, Hous-
TOM 2-7001
ton, Texas
1978
Flyin’ Shoes
Chips Moman
Tomato/TOM 7017
1987
At My Window
Jack Clement/
Sugar Hill/SH1020
Jack Rooney
288
Audio and Video Sources
289
Date
Title
Producer
Label/Catalog #
1987
Live and
Stephen Men-
Sugar Hill/SH1026
Obscure
dell/Townes
Van Zandt/Har-
old Eggers
1991
Rain on a
Wolfgang
Exile/EXLP02
Conga Drum
Doebeling
1993
The Nashville
Kevin Eggers
Tomato/
Sessions
598.1079.29
1993
Rear View
Townes Van
Sundown/
Mirror
Zandt/Harold
SD2100-2
Eggers
1993
Road Songs
Townes Van
Chlodwig/
Zandt/Harold
7432113007
Eggers
1994
No Deeper Blue
Phillip
Sugar Hill/SH1046
Donnelly
1996
Abnormal
Townes Van
Return to Sender/
Zandt/Harold
RTS32
Eggers
1997
The Highway
Townes Van
Sugar Hill/SH1042
Kind
Zandt/Harold
Eggers
1997
Documentary
Larry Monroe/
Normal/N211
Harold Eggers
1999
A Far Cry From
Eric Paul/
Arista Austin/18888
Dead
Jeanene Van
Zandt
1999
In Pain
Townes Van
Normal/N225
Zandt/Harold
Eggers
2001
Live at
Townes Van
Return to Sender/
McCabe’s
Zandt/Harold
RTS32
Eggers
2001
Texas Rain:
Kevin Eggers
Tomato/TOM-2001
The Texas
Hill Country
Recordings
290
A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt
Date
Title
Producer
Label/Catalog #
2002
A Gentle
(no production Dualtone/
Evening with
credit)
80302-01119-2
Townes Van
Zandt
2002
The Best of
Kevin Eggers
Tomato/TOM-2002
Townes Van
Zandt
2003
Absolutely
(no production Normal/N235
Nothing
credit)
2003
In the
Jack Clement
Compadre/
Beginning
6-16892-52402
2004
Rear View Mir-
Townes Van
Varese Sarabande/
ror Volume Two
Zandt/Harold
302 066 608 2
Eggers
While Townes Van Zandt’s recorded output includes numerous live
recordings from various periods released by various record labels, there
is a further rich body of independently recorded performances that
circulates among collectors and aficionados to which the author was
privileged to have access. The following is a list of those live recordings that are directly referenced in the text or directly inform general
statements made in the text.
Audio
10/20/70
Bob Fass radio show, WBAI-FM, New York City
9/30/75
Austin City Limits
5/6/78
East Lansing, Michigan
6/24/81
Anderson Fair, Houston
4/22/84
Anderson Fair, Houston
5/31/87
Mountain Stage
radio show, West Virginia 10/31/87
Steewijk, Holland
7/30/88
Speakeasy, New York City
4/1989
BFBS radio
8/1989
San Marcos, Texas, studio sessions (rough mixes) 3/11/90