Steve Earle Paid Tribute To Townes Van Zandt With Touching Lyrics About the Common Roads They Traveled

Eulogizing a friend isn’t an easy task, especially when you’re trying to do it within the confines of a song. The degree of difficulty rises when you’re attempting to sum up someone as talented and mercurial as Townes Van Zandt. Steve Earle rose to that momentous occasion with the moving “Ft. Worth Blues”, a song that he released in 1997 on his album El Corazon. In the song, Earle pays tribute by finding his commonalities with Van Zandt in terms of their lives and career paths.

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“Blues” in Common

Steve Earle’s oft-quoted line about Townes Van Zandt being a better songwriter than Bob Dylan was more a provocative marketing ploy than a line in the sand. Because Van Zandt’s genius revealed itself in subtler ways, Earle knew that a bold statement needed to be made to convince those unfamiliar with Townes’ work.

Earle knew that music well. When he was just starting his musical journey in the 70s, he connected with Van Zandt and learned well from his experience. Maybe too well. Like Van Zandt, Earle would eventually combine his musical brilliance with personal recklessness.

By 1997, Earle had come out the other side of a substance abuse addiction that eventually earned him time in prison. On New Year’s Day that same year, Van Zandt passed away at the age of 52.

Earle was in Ireland on tour when he sat down to write “Fort Worth Blues” in honor of his old friend and mentor. The title refers to the town where Van Zandt was born and raised. But the song travels far and wide, as Earle suggests that inner sadness is something that no number of miles on the odometer can shake.

Examining the Lyrics of “Fort Worth Blues”

Earle begins “Fort Worth Blues” by suggesting that the titular town itself isn’t aware of how isn’t quite aware of the fact that it just lost one of its favorite sons. The lights of the city burn on obliviously. “But they’d shut down all the honkytonks tonight,” he sings. “And say a prayer or two if they only knew.”

They say you can’t kid a kidder, and Earle calls Van Zandt on his BS in the second verse. “You used to say the highway was your home,” he sings. “But we both know that ain’t true/It’s just the only place a man can go/When he don’t know where he’s travelin’ to.”

That’s when Earle starts to retrace Van Zandt’s steps along that weary road, while implying that those “Fort Worth Blues” are his closest traveling companion. Later, he leaves the road for the sky, imagining some kind of respite for the battered and bruised. “A man can see his way clear to the light,” he explains. “Just hold on tight, that’s all you gotta do.”

In the final verse, Earle looks out over the beauty of Galway Bay and muses on the impact Van Zandt left on his life. He notes, “And every place I travel through, I find/Some kind of sign that you’ve been through.”

As Amsterdam, London, and Paris whirl by, he orients himself in his sorrow: “So I walked around with the Fort Worth Blues.” Steve Earle paid his old buddy the highest possible compliment with this beautiful song. That’s because it possesses the subtle, elusive qualities of Townes Van Zandt’s finest work.

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