HOW MANY ARE YOU WILLING TO SACRIFICE
Your eyes seek conclusion in all this confusion of mineThough you and I both know it’s only the warm glow of wine
That’s got you to feeling this way
But I don’t care, I want you to stay
And hold me and tell me you’ll be here to love me today – Townes Van Zandt, Be Here To Love Me
“Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation comes action.”
― Tupac Shakur
Saturday afternoon found me at McCay’s rifling through records. I had about $20 in store credits and was hoping to find some new gems. It was cause for celebration when I found a copy of Townes Van Zandt’s Our Mother the Mountain record. It’s not often that you find a record by the iconic troubadour and so I quickly snatched it.
Sunday morning, I popped the record on the turntabled and lost myself in the literate blues of the consummate songwriter. Unfortunately, that joy was tempered when I received the news that the young man who bore his name – Justin Townes Earle – had passed at the age of 38.Back in the early 2000s, I worked down on Elliston Square at Georges. There was a group of young ‘uns, all of them between 21 and 25, that used to regularly come in and drink pitchers of beer, play pool, and carouse. They were tattooed and greased up, the woman with hair teased or scarved but just as tatted. I christened them the rock-a-billy kids, as they almost seemed to be a throwback to another era.
It was clear they were artistically talented. Among their number were future members of Old Crow Medicine Show, the son’s of Nashville musical royalty Kevin Welch and Gary Nicholson, maybe a tattoo artist or two, and Justin Earle.
Nobody ever had any money, and so they only stuck around as long it took to down a couple of pitchers, and play a little pool. When they walked in, the energy level in the room soared, only to drop again on their departure. Watching them have fun and cut up was like watching one of those old 50’s teenage movies, they managed to exude a youthful joy with a touch of world-weariness that had somehow managed to sneak in. To say I looked forward to their visits, would be an CONTINUE READING: HOW MANY ARE YOU WILLING TO SACRIFICE – Dad Gone Wild