TVZ Records reissue!

Track Listings

1. Black Widow Blues 2:23
2. Maryetta's Song 5:33
3. Hunger Child Blues 3:13
4. Gypsy Friday 2:51
5. Waitin' for the Day 4:13
6. Black Jack Mama 3:13
7. When Your Dream Lovers Die 2:10
8. Colorado Bound 2:49
9. Big Country Blues 3:28
10. Black Crow Blues 3:02

The haunting songs of the late Townes Van Zandt combined searing honesty and tender melancholy in equal parts. The tortured Texas troubadour contributed a series of classic compositions (such as "Pancho & Lefty" and "If I Needed You") to the modern country repertoire, but his live work often crossed over into folk blues, especially in his early days in Houston. The newly discovered In the Beginning, recorded in Nashville in 1966 two years before the release of his debut, makes his blues affinity obvious while showcasing the unusual emotional maturity of his first efforts. His youthful voice is pure and strong, but the lyrics, permeated with his signature streak of fatalistic acceptance, are already deep and dark, as songs such as "When Your Dream Lovers Die" and "Hunger Child Blues" amply illustrate. These stripped-down demos are lean and enlightened, and when Townes proclaims in "Black Widow Blues" that he's "got the blues sewn into my jacket sleeve" there's no reason to doubt him. In addition, his overlooked flat-picking guitar work, modeled after one of his musical heroes, Houston blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins, provides an additional attraction. --Michael Point