This is the "Live at the Old Quarter" recording, made in the mid-70's, with a youngish Townes going through the highlights of his catalogue to date with a bar crowd who apparently love him and listen quite attentively. He sounds shy and a bit awestruck, alone on stage, commenting after "Pancho and Lefty" that he'd never heard the place that quiet before." He jokes with his audience, though, and offers some fine performances of his material. I'd buy any of the later live recordings if I wanted to just hear the songs done live; REAR VIEW MIRROR, in particular, is a much more confident and strong musical statement, by an artist at the peak of his powers; but the nice things about this recording, the interest value, is the somewhat less self-assured presentation of van Zandt as a younger man. Fans will appreciate the insights it affords, and enjoy the music. Very intimate recording.
You may want to note that although, yes, this is taken from the Live at the Old Quarter session, it has been edited to fit onto one CD. The original two CD set had 28 songs, this collection has 21.
Still, the original is now out of print, and I've really enjoyed listening to the 21 songs on this CD.
