Over five nights in July 1973, singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt recorded a live solo album at a small Houston bar called the Old Quarter on the corner of Austin and Congress streets.
Van Zandt, who died on New Year’s Day 1997 at age 52, was brilliant, tremendously talented, and a tragically troubled man who grew up in a wealthy family but lived an often itinerant life. An alcoholic and drug addict, he lost much of his long-term memory due to shock therapy as a youth and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
But over those five hot and humid nights, Van Zandt enthralled the crowd, which was jammed for each set despite the bar’s busted air conditioner. He treated them to spare acoustic sets of classic songs, including “If I Needed You,” “To Live is To Fly,” “For the Sake of the Song,” and “Pancho and Lefty,” that have since influenced artists such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Guy Clark, and Steve Earle.
Thirteen songs in, you can hear Van Zandt’s recording of “Rex’s Blues,” which was written for Rex “Wrecks” Bell, the café’s co-owner who often played bass with him. Bell, who grew up in my hometown of Texas City, also played with Lightning Hopkins and Lucinda Williams, among others, and also was good friends with Blaze Foley.
Here’s the recording if you’re interested:
Typical of Van Zandt’s messy personal and professional life, Live at Old Quarter was not released until 1977. While it was not a commercial success, Van Zandt’s recording is considered a classic Texas album, and many of its songs were recorded successfully by other artists. In the early 1980s, Van Zandt found financial success after Emmylou Harris and Don Williams had a hit with “If I Needed You” and Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard topped the charts with “Pancho and Lefty.”
Two years after Live at Old Quarter was released, the bar closed. Bell opened the Old Quarter Acoustic Café in Galveston’s Strand Historic District in 1996. Like its predecessor, the 70-seat club became a home to many a musician willing to make the trek to the Gulf Coast island.
On a short visit to Texas in August, I stopped by the café on a sweltering afternoon when I was out taking pictures, including the one that leads off his “Another 52 Weeks.” It was closed and no show was scheduled until late that evening. I needed to leave, but stopped by a nearby restaurant that was open to have a drink and cool off for a minute.
At the bar, I asked how the Old Quarter was doing. Bell had sold it in 2016 due to health issues, even though he continued to stop by regularly, and it almost closed in the wake of COVID. The bartender said the cafe was “surviving,” noting there were high hopes for a songwriter’s festival scheduled in mid-November. I asked also about Bell’s health, wishing that our paths had crossed more than the two times they had.
“He doesn’t come around as much anymore,” the bartender said. “He’s getting up there.”
The next week, on his 81st birthday, Bell wrote on Facebook: “If I would have known I would live this long, I wouldn’t have taken such good care of myself.”
He died last weekend. Next weekend, the inaugural Old Quarter Songwriter’s Festival will be held on four stages in Galveston. I wish I could be there.
Here are the rest of the photos for the week:
Posts You May Have Missed
Earlier this week, I published the second in a four-part series of photos taken during a September trip from Seattle to San Francisco. Check out the color images from the Oregon Coast.
And for Part 1, click on the link below.
Ahh, such a bittersweet post, Glenn. Despite the ghost sign, I gotta go with the Nashville shot. ❤️
I really like the Early Morning-Nashville image, Glenn. So much to see in it.