Like his hero Hank Williams, Townes Van Zandt died on January 1. On the first day of 1997, he lost his life to alcohol at 52 years old. Throughout his career, the darkest of all Texan songwriters found his inspiration in the depth of human misery, mental pain, and physical despair. Both cynical and lucid, with a singular and refined style, he always stood as an outlaw in the history of country music. He could juggle with words (death, jail, friendship, alcohol, love) and build his Tower of Babel of despair with a hint of cynicism and humor. With Sky Blue, released in early 2019, Townes Van Zandt is sending a postcard from heaven. Put together by his family (his widow Jeanene and his children J.T., Will, and Katie Bell), the album features eleven previously unreleased tracks recorded in 1973 by Bill Hedgepeth, a journalist, musician, and friend of Van Zandt. At that time, Van Zandt was living between Texas, Colorado, and a cabin in Franklin, Tennessee. His life was nomadic, and he described his lifestyle in his songs. Often along his travels, Van Zandt stopped to see his friend Hedgepeth in his home studio in Atlanta. There, he recorded songs, worked on older tracks, and sometimes experimented new sounds. All of this is memorialized in Sky Blue. The record features first drafts of classics (Pancho & Lefty and Rex’s Blues, where Van Zandt shines as a master composer and a writer whose simple words and melodies favor his ideas and emotions), and inspired covers of Richard Dobson and Tom Paxton’s song, as well as The Hills of Roane County, a murder ballad from 1880. As the icing of this beautiful cake, the record will please all fans with two unreleased songs: All I Need and Sky Blue. The album is more than enough to remind everyone of the crucial importance of Townes Van Zandt’s legacy… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz