Today marks what would have been Townes Van Zandt’s 77th birthday. The legendary singer-songwriter and guitarist was born on March 7, 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas. Townes hailed from the storied tradition of Texas songwriting alongside songsmiths like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Guy Clark, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Jerry Jeff Walker, Steve Earle and more, many of whom covered his songs.
A highly respected and influential songwriter, Van Zandt compositions like “To Live Is To Fly,” “If I Needed You,” “Waiting Around To Die,” “Pancho and Lefty” and more are widely considered masterpieces of the American songbook. Steve Earle once famously said, “Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”
It’s doubtful Dylan would have minded as he was a big Townes Van Zandt fan — as Townes was of Dylan — and the two reportedly met in Austin’s South Congress district in 1986. Bob Dylan has also covered Townes Van Zandt as have more recent stellar songwriters like Jason Isbell, Norah Jones, Gillian Welch and more.
But perhaps the most famous Townes cover is “Pancho And Lefty.” After Emmylou Harris popularized the song in 1977, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard scored a No. 1 country hit with “Pancho and Lefty” in 1983. But although his songs found success, Townes shunned celebrity and seemed to prefer performing in dive bars and living in shacks without electricity or even a telephone. Townes also struggled with alcoholism, drug addiction and mental illness. Van Zandt died on New Year’s Day in 1997 from cardiac arrhythmia due to years of substance abuse.
While Van Zandt was in and out of treatment throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, the soberest period in his career came around 1989-90. It was at this time that Townes appeared on the television program, The Texas Connection, tapped at the Fiesta Texas in San Antonio and airing on October 4, 1990. Townes performed solo acoustic and delivered two of his most well-known songs, “If I Needed You” and “Pancho And Lefty” as well as the lesser-known but no less profound, “Snowin’ On Raton.” All three performances are stunning and showcase why many consider Townes to be the greatest songwriter of all time.
To celebrate Townes Van Zandt’s birthday, watch all three performances from the songwriting legend on The Texas Connection below:
If I Needed You
Pancho and Lefty
Snowin’ On Raton
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