Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997) was a singer-songwriter whose work was popularized by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard and Lyle Lovett, among many others. Some of his tunes (“Pancho and Lefty,” “For the Sake of the Song,” “To Live is to Fly”) are masterpieces of songwriting craft. Outside of a period of relative stability in Nashville, however, his life was troubled, marred by alcohol and heroin addiction, divorces, bad management, and his own choice to live off the grid. We offer this reflection for Townes Van Zandt’s birthday (March 7), with a little help from his biographer, John Kruth.
Photo credit: Yannick Beauvalet/Downchild Blues Band official Facebook
Michael Fonfara, best known as the late Lou Reed‘s longtime keyboardist and member of Downchild Blues Band, died aged 74 in Toronto last week after a two year battle with cancer.
The musician’s publicist Eric Alper confirmed the news to
The Canadian keyboardist was born in Stevensville, Ontario in 1946, and began his musical career in 1963 with early R&B outfit Jon and Lee & The Checkmates. Following that band’s dissolution, he toured and recorded with Electric Flag in the late 1960s and was chosen to be part of the Elektra Records “supergroup” Rhinoceros for three albums, co-writing their 1968 instrumental hit ‘Apricot Brandy’.