reverendtom Review of Be Here to Love Me

Be Here to Love Me (2004)

Townes Van Zandt: The best songwriter of the past 100 years

[10/10 · 26 November 2006]

I can say without a doubt, that Townes Van Zandt is simply best American songwriter of the past century. He owes a lot to classic bluesmen like Lightnin Hopkins and country balladeers like Hank Williams, but for my money, he's the greatest. He has an economy of words and a poetry that none of his competition comes close to. Many people would site Dylan as the greatest, but I think Townes blows him out of the water. There is a rawness, and realness to Townes that you very rarely hear in music, period. You can feel the pain and longing that haunted this man, also the genius poet at work and occaissonally goofy fun lover in all his songs. I discovered Townes thanks to this movie, so I feel indebted to it for introducing me to some of the best music I've ever heard.