Our Mother The Mountain

One of the best songwriters ever.Townes Van Zandt was a genius and Our Mother The Mountain is a masterpiece.Steve Earle once said that he thought Townes was a better songwriter than Dylan and i dont disagree. As much as i love Dylan Townes has the edge.Kathleen will break your heart.This record should be bought without hesitation.You wont be disapointed.

amount of tracks:11
excellent:6
v.good:2
good:2
fair:1
poor:0

this is probably the best of all townes albums, though just like all his work, there are one or two inclusions that aint that great. this however, gets 5 stars from me cos the great outweigh the ok more so here than on any of his other offerings.
lets get the 'ok's' out of the way first - 'be here to love me' is an almost light-hearted opener which doesnt really say much to me. 'like a summer thursday' has a nice tune and melody but upon closer inspection veers toward sentimentality which takes the edge of it somewhat. still nice though.'she came and she touched me' has an interesting theme but tips its hat lyrically too much towards dylan for my liking. 'my proud mountains' is drawn out and slightly overstays its welcome whilst not saying very much, whilst 'why shes acting this way' is another dylan-ish lyric that kinda drags on a bit much too
dont get me wrong though, all the above mentioned are still very nice songs that rise head and shoulders above 99 per cent of the competition! its just that they dont measure up to the truly great remaining 6 tracks

starting as they appear ' kathleen' is a glacial-slow mournful song which must rank as one of his bleakest ever tunes, with a truly great couple of opening lines and a very nice orchestral back-up.'our mother the mountain, is a very strange number with an extremely unsettling lyric 'second lovers song' is a poignant little song which is the only one i can ever recall whereby a man is telling his woman NOT to worry about her past, and that hes not jealous and loves her regardless! the diametric opposite of the usual take on this subject! only townes, with his lovely voice and melodies and exquisitely styled wordplay, could have got away with a song like this. 'st john the gambler' is the highlight of the album and is one of townes finest ever songs. another very bleak number that conjures up all kinds of images with its beautiful, truly inspired lyric. 'tecumseh valley' paints another bleak picture and finely illustrates townes gift for storytelling. finally 'snake mountain blues' is a tour-de-force of bitterness and despair with one of his greatest ever lyrics. 'when i die lord she'd weep, she'd weep and she'd mourn, as soon as i was buried, she'd forget i'd been born' tell it like it is townes!

what an album. what a man this was. dont delay , get this as quick as you like. in fact, buy all his studio albums, cos theres gems on all of them all.

I have to tell you that I have been mesmerized by this album since I heard it for the first time a few weeks ago. I am brand new to the music of Townes Van Zandt, I discovered him by being a Steve Earle fan and hearing Steve's tribute album to Townes.
Our Mother The Mountain is pure magic, all at once it is one of the most beautiful and sad albums that I have ever heard, Kathleen is the perfect example of this, heart wrenching and gorgeous at the same time. The title song sounds like it was written and performed in the 17th century,like one of those song catcher tunes that came to America hundreds of years ago, I can listen to it everyday and not tire of it.
I could go on and on but what's the point, every song is fantastic and I am so grateful that I found this album , now I will have to explore his entire catalog, this guy was one of the greats. When people talk about poetic singer/songwriters Townes Van Zandt must be included in the conversation.