Townes Van Zandt is getting his own Mermaid Avenue.
Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza is releasing an album of lost Townes Van Zandt lyrics on February 23rd. The album, called Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt, will feature 11 songs with lyrics by Townes and music by Broza. The final track, “Too Old to Die Young,” is an instrumental by Broza.
Broza expressed humility in regards to the project. “I'm just beginning to understand what's happening here -- that it's happening. I only hope I've done those lyrics justice, turning that poetry into song as Townes would've liked (Billboard).”
It took four years to write the music for these songs, according to Broza. The songs “all deal with death -- almost all of them,” not surprising since Van Zandt was dying as he wrote these lyrics, finally succumbing to the lifetime damage of drugs, alcohol, and the crushing weight of his own genius/madness.
This will be the second musical tribute to Townes Van Zandt in the past year. In Spring of 2009, Steve Earle--who was mentored by Van Zandt--released an album of Van Zandt covers titled Townes.
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