Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Townes Van Zandt (2022)

John Townes Van Zandt was born on 7 March 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas, into a wealthy family, and after the family relocated from Fort Worth to Billings, Montana in 1952, his father gave him a guitar, which he practiced while wandering the countryside. After attending the Shattuck School in Faribault, Minnesota, he enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1962, and wrote poetry and listened to records by Lightnin' Hopkins and Hank Williams. In the spring of his second year, his parents flew to Boulder to bring Townes back to Houston, worried about his binge drinking and episodes of depression, and he was admitted to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where he was diagnosed with manic depression. He received three months of insulin shock therapy, which erased much of his long-term memory, but in 1965 he was accepted into the University of Houston's pre-law program. After his father died in January 1966 at age 52, he quit school and went on the road for the first time, having been inspired by his singer-songwriter heroes to pursue a career in playing music. His early gigs in Houston clubs mostly consisted of covers of songs written by Hopkins, Bob Dylan, and others, as well as original novelty songs like 'Fraternity Blues', and in 1968 he met songwriter Mickey Newbury in a Houston coffee shop, and he persuaded Van Zandt to go to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was introduced to the man who became his longtime producer, "Cowboy" Jack Clement. With Clement producing, Van Zandt recorded sessions in the studio which became his debut album, 'For The Sake Of The Song', released in 1968 by Poppy Records. The next five years were the most prolific of Van Zandt's career, as Poppy released the albums 'Our Mother The Mountain', 'Townes Van Zandt', 'Delta Momma Blues', 'High, Low And In Between', and 'The Late Great Townes Van Zandt'. It's his third album which has some of his most covered songs, and the fact the many of them are by modern artists, such as The Magic Numbers, Laura Marling, and Bright Eyes shows the esteem in which he is still held as a legend of American song-writing. 

Track listing

01 For The Sake Of The Song (Azure Ray 2002)  
02 Columbine (Mike Molaro 2021)  
03 Waiting Around To Die (Nathan Hamilton 2020)  
04 Don't Take It Too Bad (Steve Earle 2009  
05 Colorado Girl (Laura Marling 2014)  
06 Lungs (Jonell Mosser 1996)  
07 I'll Be Here In The Morning (The Stonemans 1970) 
08 Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel (Bright Eyes 2022)  
09 (Quicksilver Daydreams Of) Maria (The Magic Numbers 2010)  
10 None But The Rain (Robin & Linda Williams 1975)

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Dolly Parton (2002)

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on 9 January 1946 in Pittman Center, Tennessee, and is the fourth of twelve children. For six or seven years, Parton and her family lived in their rustic, one-bedroom cabin on their small subsistence farm on Locust Ridge, and music played an important role in her early life. Her earliest public performances were in the church, beginning at age six, and by seven she'd started playing a homemade guitar. When she was eight, her uncle bought her first real guitar and she began singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area. By ten, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, and at 13, she recorded a single 'Puppy Love' on a small Louisiana label, Goldband Records. After graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, she moved to Nashville the next day, where her initial success came as a songwriter, having signed with Combine Publishing shortly after her arrival. With her frequent songwriting partner, her uncle Bill Owens, she wrote several charting singles during this time, including two Top 10 hits for Bill Phillips, with 'Put It Off Until Tomorrow' and 'The Company You Keep', and one for Skeeter Davis with 'Fuel To The Flame'. 

Her songs were recorded by many other artists during this period, including Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr., but when she was signed to Monument Records in 1965, she initially was pitched as a bubblegum pop singer. She released a string of singles, but the only one that charted, 'Happy, Happy Birthday Baby', did not crack the Billboard Hot 100. Although she expressed a desire to record country material, Monument resisted, thinking her unique, high soprano voice was not suited to the genre. After her composition 'Put It Off Until Tomorrow', was recorded by Bill Phillips and went to number six on the country chart in 1966, the label relented and allowed her to record country music. Her first country single was 'Dumb Blonde' (composed by Curly Putman, and one of the few songs during this era that she didn't write), which reached number 24 on the country chart in 1967, followed by 'Something Fishy', which went to number 17, and both songs appeared on her debut album 'Hello, I'm Dolly' in 1967. In order to showcase her song-writing talents, she recorded her own versions of the Bill Phillips and Skeeter Davis singles for inclusion on the record, and other songs from it were soon picked up and covered by other country artists. Only two tracks from the album were not self-penned, but because 'Dumb Blonde' is so associated with her I've included it on this collection anyway, and to flesh out a rather short album I've included a few tracks written during the same time-frame, which all go to show what a talented song-writer she was even in her teens. 

Track listing

01 Dumb Blonde (Liz Anderson 1968)         
02 Your Ole Handy Man (Priscilla Mitchell 1967)  
03 I Don't Wanna Throw Rice (Ursula West 2002)  
04 Put It Off Until Tomorrow (Loretta Lynn 1966)  
05 I Wasted My Tears (The Traditional Grass 1993)  
06 Something Fishy (Marie Strong 1968)  
07 Fuel To The Flame (Skeeter Davis 1967)  
08 I'm In No Condition (Hank Williams Jr. 1967)  
09 The Company You Keep (Bill Phillips 1966) 
10 You're Gonna Be Sorry (The Stonemans 1968)
11 Just Because I'm A Woman (Jeannie Seely 1968)
12 Why Why Why (Tracy Nelson 1969)
13 As Long As I Love You (Dottie West 1970)