Both Kinds of Music

Austin Chronicle: I have a Texas-specific question for you: did you ever play with Townes Van Zandt?

Gillian Welch: Yeah, many times. When we first started playing in Nashville, Townes was at a bunch of our first shows at Douglas Corner, which was a place he liked to hang out and drink. I remember the first show of ours he was at. He sat by himself at a table in the front row, like four feet from me, and every time Dave and I would hit a harmony note just right and really make it buzz, he'd pound the table and howl like a dog. I took this as a high compliment. Later we opened some shows for him. We had the same booking agent, a fellow named Keith Case who booked Townes for years, so we did some shows with him, some Writers in the Round with him. Nashville was founded on those, where writers sit in a circle, face each other, and play their songs. There were a couple parties, right at the end of Townes' life, when he couldn't really hold a guitar anymore or play. He would recite his songs because he couldn't sing. I remember one particular party at Doug Dillard's house, where Townes had been passed out in a chair for hours. We just thought he was out and then I dropped my pick and it was down under his chair. As I was bending down to get it, I looked up at him and his eyes were open and he was looking right at me. He didn't move, he gave me that line, "There's just two kinds of music in the world. There's blues and there's 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah'." Then he just closed his eyes again. Later, the sun was coming up and I started to sing "Fraulein," the old folk song, and he kind of woke up and took over and sang "Fraulein" and that was that. I think that was the last time I ever saw him.