Townes Van Zandt – Live At The Old Quarter

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  • Outstanding sound for this original Tomato LP with Triple Plus (A+++) sound on sides two and three and Double Plus (A++) sound on the other two sides
  • Big, full-bodied, clean and clear with a punchy bottom end and a lovely musical quality that’s missing from most copies
  • “Van Zandt could work magic in front of an audience under the right circumstances, and while a wealth of live recordings of Van Zandt have emerged since his passing on the first day of 1997, Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas ranks with the very best of his concert albums.” – All Music, 4 1/2 Stars

What do the best pressings give you?

  • Energy for starters. What could be more important than the life of the music?
  • The Big Sound comes next — wall to wall, lots of depth, huge space, three-dimensionality, all that sort of thing.
  • Then transient information — fast, clear, sharp attacks for the piano notes, not the smear and thickness so common to most LPs.
  • Tight punchy bass — which ties in with good transient information, also the issue of frequency extension further down.
  • Next: transparency — the quality that allows you to hear deep into the soundfield, showing you the space and air around all the instruments.
  • Extend the top and bottom and voila, you have The Real Thing — an honest to goodness Hot Stamper.

TRACK LISTING

Side One

The Heart of Rock & Roll
Heart and Soul
Bad Is Bad
I Want a New Drug

Side Two

Walking on a Thin Line
Finally Found a Home
If This Is It
You Crack Me Up
Honky Tonk Blues

Side Three

For The Sake Of The Song
Chauffeur’s Blues
No Place To Fall
Loretta
Kathleen
Why She’s Acting That Way

Side Four

Cocaine Blues
Who Do You Love
Tower Song
Waiting ‘Round To Die
Tecumseh Valley
Lungs
Only Him Or Me

AMG 4 1/2 Star Review

Townes Van Zandt is better regarded as a songwriter than as a performer, and not without reason — he was a peerless lyricist with a singular ability to capture the landscape of the heart and soul in words, but while he was a fine singer he wasn’t exceptional, and the ravages of alcohol, tobacco and drugs took a fearsome toll on his voice in his last years.

But Van Zandt could work magic in front of an audience under the right circumstances, and while a wealth of live recordings of Van Zandt have emerged since his passing on the first day of 1997, Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas ranks with the very best of his concert albums.

Live at the Old Quarter is simple and spare, capturing Van Zandt in a 1973 solo performance at a Houston saloon with just his acoustic guitar for company, and the engineering ably captures the ambience of the room, with the audience clearly caught up in the spell of these songs.

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