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** Townes Van Zandt - Frequently Asked Questions ** great.

Q2. Who is Townes Van Zandt (biographical information)? Marriages and children:

John Townes Van Zandt was born March 7, 1944 in Ft. Worth Texas.

He married Fran Petters in 1965. The marriage produced a son, John
Townes Van Zandt II born April 11, 1969 in Houston TX.
Townes and his first wife (Fran) were divorced in January 1970.

Townes married his second wife, Cindy, in Nashville in September 1978 (they
had lived together since late 1974); they were divorced on February 10 1983
in Travis County Texas.

Townes third and final marriage was to Jeanene Munsell, who was born in Corpus Christi,
Texas on February 21, 1957. The pair met in Austin TX December 9th 1980 the day after
John Lennon was killed. They took up residency together that very day. They were legally
married March 14, 1983 ten days before the birth of their first child William Vincent.
Their second child, Katie Belle Van Zandt was born nine years later on February 14, 1992
in Nashville, TN.
They were divorced May 2, 1994 although they remained extremely close
and bought a second home together on Old Hickory Lake in Mt. Juliet TN which Townes named
Bayou Self. When off the road back home in Tennessee, Townes split his time between the
family home, The Ponderosa when he was behaving well enough to be around the children and
Bayou Self when he wasn't.
Townes died at the lakehouse in Mt. Juliet of a heart attack following hip surgery on New
Years Day, 1997, the same day his idol, Hank Williams, passed away. Jeanene and the children
were by his side. Some of his remains (ashes) are buried in the Van Zandt family plot at
Dido Cemetery, Tarrant County, Texas which is on land donated to the town by Townes' ancestors.

Q16. Concerning Townes' personal life, what was behind his divorce from Jeanene?

Excerpted from Jeanene Van Zandt's response to a query on about-townes:

> When I read Jeanene's posts they give the impression that she and Townes > were inseparable. > But I understand that he had moved (or rather was kicked out) from their > house in Smyrna to an apartment in Nashville. > And that Jeanene had divorced Townes.

...if you are referring to divorce as two people not loving each other and going their seperate ways, well that never happened to me and Townes. We Loved each other the same from the moment we met until he took his last breath. We have sixteen years of history and two and a half (JT) huh-half~cool~?("we" "half" had him) children together and Townes never referred to me as anything other than his wife till the day he died.
If you are asking if there is a stack of papers down at the courthouse that says I was no longer liable for his actions or responsible for his debts, you bet there is which right now as I go
through an IRS audit for him as the Executrix to his Estate and the natural and legal guardian to the two minor heirs who's inheritance is at stake I am so thankful. He gave his songs to me and he knew that they would be protected and would stay in his family till they belong to the folks 100 years from now. - JVZ Jan 6, 1998

AboutTownes : AboutTownes - Townes Van Zandt that is! groups.yahoo.com/group/AboutTownes/ - 16k -
Description: An open list to discuss the music and poetry of Townes Van Zandt. This list was originally started by fans in 1996 and has grown over the years. This community is diverse. Discussions are often "off-topic" and may include discussions related to "OKOM" (Our kind of Music) and just about anything else. Mail volume will fluctuate. Many of the folks on this list are well-aquainted. Newcomers are welcome and encouraged to join the conversation at any time. cool.

Q12. What movies and television shows feature Townes or info about him? Townes performed 2 songs in Heartworn Highways, a 1981 film starring the Charlie Daniels Band, which featured several musicians fromTexas to Tennesee. ...

Q11. What publications and periodicals contain more info on Townes? Remarkably, as of Jun 15, 2004, there are still no books written exclusively about Townes. Townes' 1977 songbook, "For the Sake of the Song"[edited by Joseph F. Lomax, published 1977 by Wings Press, usually available],is perhaps the best source to date, as it has a brief biography by Lola Scobey, an introduction by John M. Lomax, and words and music to 14 songs.
>Where can I read the article on Townes by William Hedgepath that is referred to by Lola Scobey in the TVZ songbook? The article in question, it seems, is not available, but another article from the same era by that author is available in full, "Townes Van Zandt - messages from the outside". This was published in Atlanta's Hittin' the Note magazine back in May 1977.
>Townes has been written up in many more periodicals such as Acoustic Songwriter and No Depression...
Bios in works: by Wllm Hedgepath (whose name I memorized from film end credits), by Harold Eggers w/Larry Monroe; No Deeper Blue by Bob Hardy...

-Bo Sjogen has transcribed lyrics from most of Townes' songs and put them on the web at: http://ippc2.orst.edu/coopl/lyrics/index.html
-There are hundreds of recordings of Townes' songs by others. Frans Bevers, maintains a regularly updated list that can be found at:
http://ippc2.orst.edu/coopl/tvzothers.html.
odd?thing is ippc2= Integrated Plant Protection Center of Oregon State University hosting this.

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http://whisperinandhollerin.com/reviews/review.asp?id=377 review of Live at the Old Qtr:
It's important to remember that one of the reasons behind TOWNES' alarming alcohol intake was his horrendous fear of performing, but that doesn't show here. What does shine through are the wit, rapport with his audience and sharp observation that epitomised a VAN ZANDT gig, no more so than on the two talking blues, "Fraternity Blues" and "Talking Thunderbird Blues"; the latter a hilarious homage to the cheapo wine that fuelled many a Sun Studios session during the 50s. There would be later TOWNES live collections (mostly decent, too) but "Live At The Old Quarter" is still arguably the definitive live artefact. The studio sorcery wasn't over yet, either.
-Sometime before this live album appeared, TOWNES was divorced from his first wife Fran Petters (they'd married in 1965 and had a son, John Townes II) and there was a second marriage to Jeanene Munselle in 1980, but by the time he came to record 1978's "Flyin' Shoes", he had just girlfriend Cindy and faithful dog Geraldine for company.

Chicago Tribune 'Be Here To Love Me' a murky portrait of a ... ... with his second wife in a run-down trailer with blown-out windows. ... I'm not sure if "Love Me" is trying to mythologize or demonize Van Zandt. ...
One big unanswered question is why this child of privilege (his father was an oil industry executive) would take up residence with his second wife in a run-down trailer with blown-out windows.
this article -writer Louis Carlozo - no good:
-wrong: Van Zandt--who married three times and left behind children from each union.
-mean: left theater w/contempt. !. says townes was a 'monster.'
-wanted a bio-pic: We learn that Van Zandt descended from original Texas settlers--there's even a county in the state named after the family--but don't hear another breath about those ancestors, as we would in, say, the excellent Janis Joplin biography "Love, Janis." ...good-old fashioned narrative, news accounts and lots of backstory to give people a clear sense of who the subject is and why we should care. !. you didn't care and oh you wanted clarity. Why not, for example, take a more linear and deliberate approach in unfolding the events... what a nightmare to me, such personalities out there, writing for chicago tribune.