Singer-songwriter Whitey Morgan has released a video of his cover of the Townes Van Zandt classic, “Waitin’ Round to Die.” The song is from Morgan’s upcoming album Sonic Ranch.
While Van Zandt’s original version of the song sounds like a sad lament, Morgan takes the song up a notch in both volume and tempo, grounding the sadness in anger and a touch of defiance. I like the Outlaw country take on a song I already loved, making Morgan’s “Waitin’ Round to Die” one of the best covers I have heard in a long time. Check it out.
Morgan and his band the 78’s previously released Honky Tonks and Cheap Motels (2008) and Whitey Morgan and the 78’s (2010). And, in 2014, Morgan released Grandpa’s Guitar. The Flint, Michigan honky-tonk singer (whose real name is Eric David Allen) releases Sonic Ranch on May 19, 2015.
What is your favorite cover of a Townes Van Zandt song that is not “Pancho and Lefty”? Leave your two cents in the comments?
The 1976 documentary Heartworn Highways provided insight into some of the legends of alternative country like Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, and Guy Clark. Director Jim Szalapski filled the film with vignettes of the singer-songwriters in their daily lives, providing a fly-on-the wall portrait of them. It is a film for music lovers, without a narrative story, that I found engaging.
Now, to celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of Heartworn Highways, director Wayne Price will be releasing Heartworn Highways Revisited.
The new film takes a look at some current outlaw country singers like Shelly Colvin, Matraca Berg, Bobby Bare Jr., Johnny Fritz, Robert Ellis, Shovels and Rope, Joshua Hedley, John McCauley, and Langhorne Slim. Some old-timers make appearances too, like Guy Clark and David Allan Coe. I am happy to see that rising star singer-songwriter Andrew Combs is in the film too.
Check out the promotional video below.
On the film’s website, Price writes, “With electronic laptop musicians commanding the airwaves, I am excited to bring us back to the ‘old school, with songwriters who only need their instrument and their experience to create music.”
Years ago, I loaned my copy of Heartworn Highways to a friend and never got it back. But I enjoyed the movie, which has some great moments like Van Zandt playing “Waitin’ Round To Die.” I still listen to the soundtrack.
Reportedly, there is no release date yet for the new film, but I am looking forward to the release of Heartworn Highways Revisited.
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