For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Townes, Guy and Ray Wylie at the Three Teardrops

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Dec. 30 2011 at 4:10 PM

Whenever I drive down this stretch of ~~Industrial~~Riverfront, which is often, I think about what used to be there: the Three Teardrops Tavern, the honky-tonk that served as home-away-from for old-timers (Boots Bourquin was a regular), newcomers (Ed Burleson got his start there) and those in-between (Ronnie Dawson, then taking his first steps on the comeback trail, played many a show there). And then there was the magical night of May 8, 1992, when Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark pulled in, bringing with them special guests Ray Wylie Hubbard and Bobby Rambo.

Though the haze I vaguely recall that show, the first but not last time I'd see Townes before his death five years later; there was that woozy eve at the Sons of Hermann in '96, when Butch Hancock opened, and a performance on the Santa Monica Pier, at the old Ash Grove, later that year. But he was in declining health then; he looked like a shadow. It was as though the audience had come to pay its last respects.

But on this epic night -- pristinely preserved here, courtesy that secret stash, or here -- Townes was in fine form, his downers recounted as if each were an in-joke and his laffers offered with a warm shot and a chilled chaser. All the standards are here: "Pancho and Lefty," "If I Needed You," "To Live Is To Fly," "Mr. Mudd And Mr. Gold." Said Townes, he was happy to be there: "I was born in Fort Worth, so it's nice to be on this side of town."

Clark, doing stand-up between songs, also leaves no standard unturned; ah, so that's what "L.A. Freeway" is about. Ray Wylie does his classic ("Loco Gringo's Lament"), Rambo plays a few, then Guy and Townes take the stage for a song swap. It runs two and a half hours, feels about 34 minutes and ought to last you, oh, a lifetime. The perfect sound track for a back-porch eve before New Year's Eve.

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Lastangelman

3TD is sorely missed. Ah, then there was those Mary Cutrufello shows ...

Bigrig

I remember The Three Teardrops Tavern,had a lot of fun times there,Also remember that particular evening{ didn't have the money to go} as well as the original closing that was broadcast and Larry Joe Taylor recorded that evening.What a great place and a fun place.

Warren Nash

The Three Teardrops was an enormous loss. I was there the night it closed. Junior Brown played and when he quit empty liquor bottles covered the tables, there was NO beer left in the entire bar and not a dry eye in the house. One of those (sadly) magical evenings.

Jason

Thank you for this! Although, I'm going with the mediafire download. The archive.org link is an auto-download of a 43.4 MB wma file. Not sure how that could be a 2.5 hour show. But, thank you again! Happy new year. PS: For the new year are you going to start thinking about that history of Dallas music book? hehe...

pak152

got a link for the mediafire download

Robert Wilonsky

It's the second "here." This one:

http://atruersound.com/?tag=bo...

pak152

thanks missed it the first time, second and third time, 4th time is a charm

scottindallas

How much Ray Wylie is on there? The rare album "Loco Gringos Lament" is perhaps his strongest work, is it just the song, or the whole album? I'm sure I'll find out as I'm a big Townes fan myself.

I linked on and see the set list

Jason

It's the second link that RW listed but here's the direct link to mediafire. You might have to do a cut and paste. Just make sure you grab both lines of the link below.

http://www.mediafire.com/?shar...