“Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”

-Steve Earle

Texan Townes Van Zandt’s music doesn’t jump up and down, wear fancy clothes, or beat around the bush. Whether he was singing a quiet, introspective country-folk song or a driving, hungry blues tune, Van Zandt's lyrics and melodies were filled with the kind of haunting truth and beauty that you knew instinctively.

Townes Van Zandt’s songs have been covered by a who’s who of singers and songwriters including Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Willie Nelson, Nanci Griffith, Merle Haggard, Robert Earle Keen, Son Volt, Pat Green, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Sonic Youth and Mudhoney to name a few. Most recently, the songs of Townes Van Zandt were tributized on the very successful collection “Poet: A Tribute to Townes van Zandt.”

A Gentle Evening With Townes Van Zandt was recorded live in 1969 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. This never before released, amazing recording captures Van Zandt live on tape for the first time and in front of the distinguished Carnegie Hall audience.  Classic songs that found their way onto his first albums are heard debuted here in this classic live performance.  Townes van Zandt is an American treasure and A Gentle Evening With Townes Van Zandt is the definitive live recording of this master and his songs as first presented in 1969.