Rear View Mirror (CD)

• Category:  Music  »  Country  »  Singer/Songwriter
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: January 22, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fat Possum Records
• UPC: 767981110721
• WAPI (Tower ID): 111717120
• Average Customer Review: There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!
• Tower.com Sales Rank: #22362 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #125696 in Country (See Top 100 Country Bestsellers)
• #23 in Singer/Songwriter (See Top 100 Singer/Songwriter Bestsellers)

Personnel: Townes Van Zandt (vocals, guitar); Danny Rowland (guitar); Owen Cody (fiddle).

Includes liner notes by John Conquest.

All songs written by Townes Van Zandt.

Van Zandt, the original Texas Troubadour, courted death most of his life. One of his earliest songs was called "Waitin' Round To Die," and he titled one of his albums THE LATE GREAT TOWNES VAN ZANDT. So when a lifetime of hard living finally caught up with him on New Year's Day 1997, the grim visions that made up his oeuvre seemed like nothing so much as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Though the 1993 live album REAR VIEW MIRROR was on Sugar Hill's reissue schedule for months prior to the singer's death, its release only weeks afterward has left the album with a eulogistic feel.

The songs on REAR VIEW MIRROR brim with wit, wisdom and striking poetic imagery. The sound is a combination of Hank Williams' haunted wail and Bob Dylan's surreal balladry. Though there are glimpses of pure beauty ("If I Needed You," "Don't You Take It Too Bad"), most everywhere Van Zandt looks, he encounters a new kind of nightmare. In "Our Mother The Mountain," he's visited by a demonic woman whose "flesh turns to splinters." Most tellingly, in "Lungs," while dreaming of taking the moonlight home with him, he reminds himself that his "hands will turn to butter, better leave this dream alone, try to find another."

There are no customer reviews yet. Be the first to write a review!

• Great Deals on CDs under $9.99
  
  New Releases, Bestsellers and Classic Albums all for under $10! Great Music for Everyone's Tastes!
• Great Deals on DVDs under $12.99
  
  New Releases, Bestsellers and Classic DVDs all for under $13! Great Movies, TV and DVD Specials for Everyone's Tastes!
• Great Deals on Books under $14.99
  
  New Releases, Bestsellers and Classic Books all for under $15! Great Reads for Everyone's Tastes!