'He Believed In The Healing Power Of Music' Honoring The Late, Legendary Texas Songwriter Townes Van Zandt

TOWNES VAN ZANDT RANKS ALONGSIDE Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan,” says Grammy-winning country artist Rodney Crowell of the late singer-songwriter. “He inspired so many songwriters to shoot for something that’s timeless.”

- Deborah Evans Price

On Oct. 9, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame will induct the late Van Zandt — known for songs like “Pancho & Lefty,” “If I Needed You,” “Tecumseh Valley” and “No Place to Fall” — during its 46th annual gala at the Music City Center in Nashville. The evening also will honor fellow songwriters Aaron Barker, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Bob Morrison.

Pat Alger, chairman of the hall of fame’s board of directors, acknowledges that Van Zandt, who died on New Year’s Day in 1997 at the age of 52 of an apparent heart attack, never achieved the hitmaking status of other inductees, which includes stars from Gene Autry to Tammy Wynette. “But once in a while,” says Alger, “there’s a songwriter whose lack of giant copyrights doesn’t reflect his importance to the songwriting community. Townes was a unique writer of great style, an original thinker whose narrative gifts came to define the Texas songwriting of his era.”