Joe the Plumber was a big hit in the third and final presidential debate. He was mentioned at least thirteen times! I wonder if Joe the Plumber knows Joe six-pack. And does either of them know Joe Blow? I’m not sure how the name Joe came to represent the hypothetical average man, but here it is all over the media.

Townes Van Zandt, on the other hand, was not your average Joe. He was a country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet affectionately remembered as “a songwriter’s songwriter” influential in the genre referred to as outlaw country. Van Zandt’s songs have been covered by many great musicians such as Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Merle Haggard, Norah Jones, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, The Be Good Tanyas, Gillian Welch, and the Dixie Chicks – ¦to name a few. I mention him here not only because he is one of the best songwriters in the whole world, but because yesterday we drove through Van Zandt county in eastern Texas on our way to Dallas. The county is named for Isaac Van Zandt, a member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas, and ancestor of Townes. Van Zandt County is one of 46 prohibition, or entirely dry, counties in the state of Texas. This is sadly ironic because Townes Van Zandt pretty much drank himself to death. He died 44 years to the date after Hank Williams, one of his main songwriting influences. We paid homage to Townes yesterday

Tags: country-folk singer, Joe the Plumber, Kort McCumber, outlaw country, songwriter, Townes Van Zandt, Van Zandt county

This entry was posted by Kort on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 9:01 am and is filed under Lickskillet Road - Tours. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.