Texas Troubadours - 100 Singer-Songwriter Albums
by henrygreen0203 
"If you're nobody's business or you're front page news
Folk, Rock, Country or Delta Blues
Tell your truth however you choose
And do it all for the sake of the song"
-Hayes Carll
The following are selected records from many Texas singer-songwriter folk icons. Each album contains mostly original songwriting material by the featured artist.
- Chart updated: 05/04/2021 20:45
- (Created: 10/24/2016 18:43).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
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1958
Track: Everyday
All but six songs written or co-written by Buddy Holly
. [First added to this chart: 07/14/2018]
Track: Everyday
All but six songs written or co-written by Buddy Holly
. [First added to this chart: 07/14/2018]
Year of Release:
1958
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,606
Rank in 1958:
Rank in 1950s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
19
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1959
Track: Trouble Stay 'Way From My Door
All but two songs written or co-written by Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins
. [First added to this chart: 05/29/2017]
Track: Trouble Stay 'Way From My Door
All but two songs written or co-written by Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins
. [First added to this chart: 05/29/2017]
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1961
Track: Excuse Me I Think I've Got a Heartache
All but one song written or co-written by Buck Owens
. [First added to this chart: 07/27/2018]
Track: Excuse Me I Think I've Got a Heartache
All but one song written or co-written by Buck Owens
. [First added to this chart: 07/27/2018]
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1962
Track: Only for the Lonely
All but six songs co-written by Roy Orbison
. [First added to this chart: 08/29/2017]
Track: Only for the Lonely
All but six songs co-written by Roy Orbison
. [First added to this chart: 08/29/2017]
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1964
Track: You Don't Know Me
All songs written or co-written by Cindy Walker
. [First added to this chart: 01/05/2018]
Track: You Don't Know Me
All songs written or co-written by Cindy Walker
. [First added to this chart: 01/05/2018]
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1965
Track: King of the Road
All but one song written or co-written by Roger Miller
. [First added to this chart: 04/07/2017]
Track: King of the Road
All but one song written or co-written by Roger Miller
. [First added to this chart: 04/07/2017]
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1969
Track: Waiting Around to Die
All songs written by Townes van Zandt
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNxUpeQCiJUQfclL9FBxEvVWXXlj9D5Cf
Perhaps the purest poet of all Texas songwriters, Townes Van Zandt wrote essential love songs and portrayed the shattered lives of lonely outsiders. Sometimes his fingers stumbled, and his voice was barely up to the task, but there was never any music more real. Brutal observations of life’s lows, often based on personal experience, followed by a lullaby of perfect beauty and hope.
Born of a prominent Fort Worth family, Van Zandt didn’t live anywhere for long, bouncing between Austin, Houston, Nashville, Colorado and other places of refuge. A wanderer and a troubadour, never far from trouble, his heart gave out in 1997, just too big to last too long.
His father gave him a guitar for Christmas in 1956, and after watching Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show that same year, decided he too would become a musician.
Townes was an intelligent and precocious child but began to struggle with depression as a young man, and would struggle with alcohol and drug dependencies his whole life. In 1962 he was diagnosed with manic depression and received insulin shock therapy that erased much of his short-term memory. He was then prevented from joining the Air Force after a finding of acute depression.
Van Zandt decided to seriously pursue his artistic ambitions and began playing regularly in Houston clubs, where he met folks like Lightning Hopkins, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Eric Taylor. He started out covering the songs of others but was soon writing his own stuff, and making a splash with the quality of that work. In 1968 he met Mickey Newbury, who invited him to Nashville and introduced Townes to “Cowboy” Jack Clement, who would become his producer well into the future.
Over his career Van Zandt released ten albums of original work. He died of heart failure on New Year’s Day, 1997, leaving his then wife Jeanene and four children, John Townes “J.T.” Van Zandt II, William Vincent Van Zandt, Katie Belle Van Zandt and Chad Whitson. Three LP’s of demo material were released after his death.
Van Zandt is touted as the heart and soul of Texas songwriting, and is an acknowledged influence on an array of important artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith, Gillian Welch and Conor Oberst, and his songs have been covered by artists too numerous to mention. His songs always silenced the room. They still do.
Townes Van Zandt lived life the only way his soul permitted. His ghost is always with us, just beyond the light, gaunt but smiling, fire in his eyes and liquor on his breath. Performers reach for his songs at the end of the night, maybe in tribute, or maybe because they need them just like the rest of us.
Three things to know about Townes Van Zandt: (1) Van Zandt County in East Texas is named for his family, (2) Townes’ closest friends were Guy and Susanna Clark, and they spent much time around the Clark’s kitchen table in Nashville, schooling young writers, and (3) after his death, and according to his wishes, Israeli singer David Broza recorded Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt, a random collection of Townes’ unreleased poems and lyrics which he set to music. [First added to this chart: 03/24/2017]
Track: Waiting Around to Die
All songs written by Townes van Zandt
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNxUpeQCiJUQfclL9FBxEvVWXXlj9D5Cf
Perhaps the purest poet of all Texas songwriters, Townes Van Zandt wrote essential love songs and portrayed the shattered lives of lonely outsiders. Sometimes his fingers stumbled, and his voice was barely up to the task, but there was never any music more real. Brutal observations of life’s lows, often based on personal experience, followed by a lullaby of perfect beauty and hope.
Born of a prominent Fort Worth family, Van Zandt didn’t live anywhere for long, bouncing between Austin, Houston, Nashville, Colorado and other places of refuge. A wanderer and a troubadour, never far from trouble, his heart gave out in 1997, just too big to last too long.
His father gave him a guitar for Christmas in 1956, and after watching Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show that same year, decided he too would become a musician.
Townes was an intelligent and precocious child but began to struggle with depression as a young man, and would struggle with alcohol and drug dependencies his whole life. In 1962 he was diagnosed with manic depression and received insulin shock therapy that erased much of his short-term memory. He was then prevented from joining the Air Force after a finding of acute depression.
Van Zandt decided to seriously pursue his artistic ambitions and began playing regularly in Houston clubs, where he met folks like Lightning Hopkins, Guy Clark, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Eric Taylor. He started out covering the songs of others but was soon writing his own stuff, and making a splash with the quality of that work. In 1968 he met Mickey Newbury, who invited him to Nashville and introduced Townes to “Cowboy” Jack Clement, who would become his producer well into the future.
Over his career Van Zandt released ten albums of original work. He died of heart failure on New Year’s Day, 1997, leaving his then wife Jeanene and four children, John Townes “J.T.” Van Zandt II, William Vincent Van Zandt, Katie Belle Van Zandt and Chad Whitson. Three LP’s of demo material were released after his death.
Van Zandt is touted as the heart and soul of Texas songwriting, and is an acknowledged influence on an array of important artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith, Gillian Welch and Conor Oberst, and his songs have been covered by artists too numerous to mention. His songs always silenced the room. They still do.
Townes Van Zandt lived life the only way his soul permitted. His ghost is always with us, just beyond the light, gaunt but smiling, fire in his eyes and liquor on his breath. Performers reach for his songs at the end of the night, maybe in tribute, or maybe because they need them just like the rest of us.
Three things to know about Townes Van Zandt: (1) Van Zandt County in East Texas is named for his family, (2) Townes’ closest friends were Guy and Susanna Clark, and they spent much time around the Clark’s kitchen table in Nashville, schooling young writers, and (3) after his death, and according to his wishes, Israeli singer David Broza recorded Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt, a random collection of Townes’ unreleased poems and lyrics which he set to music. [First added to this chart: 03/24/2017]
Year of Release:
1969
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,372
Rank in 1969:
Rank in 1960s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
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1969
Track: San Francisco Mabel Joy
All songs written or co-written by Mickey Newbury
https://youtu.be/5CBum4fMS44
The songs of Mickey Newbury came from a place of serenity and sadness, beautiful recollections of the ones we left behind, pretty portraits of love’s bittersweet residue. He pulls the memories to the surface and leads us through the pain, ultimately to a place of resignation and quiet joy. There is no anger in these songs, and little regret, just dusty gratitude for the love he had and the life he lived.
Newbury came from a different time. Born in Houston in 1940, there were no footsteps to follow, no radio folksters to awaken or inspire him. He was a natural poet, with something inside of him that had to get out. As a teenager he locked himself in his room to dream, write poetry and learn to play a wooden guitar.
At nineteen he joined the Air Force and spent a few years in England, then returned to the States to become a songwriter. He chased gigs to showcase his work in Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana, living in his car and working the shrimp boats when he needed money. He ended up in Nashville and, in 1964, signed with Acuff-Rose. Now a full-fledged contract songwriter with Nashville credentials, Newbury honed his craft in the days before labels and wholesale commercialization, and soon found his songs being recorded by the disparate likes of Don Gibson, Tom Jones, the First Edition, Eddy Arnold and Solomon Burke.
He released his first album of his own work, Harlequin Memories, in 1969, married soon thereafter, and produced three classic albums in the coming years, including Looks Like Rain, Frisco Mabel Joy and Heaven Help the Child. These were his finest songs, utterly original and compelling work that was mostly overlooked in the cultural frenzy of the late sixties. But other writers were listening. You can still hear him in their songs.
In 1973, having built a respectable stream of songwriting royalties, Mickey and his wife Susan moved their family to her hometown in Oregon. He continued touring and, in 1980, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. He decided to take a break from the business and focused on his family for a few years. Imagine a Texas songwriter living in Oregon, looking like a cross between Robert Mitchum and Pat Boone, playing golf in double-knit pants.
He came back strong in the nineties and produced a wealth of more fine work before passing away in 2002. Newbury released more than twenty albums over a long career, changing the course of folk and country music alike.
Three things you should know about Mickey Newbury: (1) country DJ Ralph Emery called him the first “hippie-cowboy”, (2) he convinced Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt to pursue songwriting careers in Nashville, and (3) Elvis Presley famously covered “An American Trilogy”, Newbury’s arrangement of classic American folk anthems. [First added to this chart: 03/24/2017]
Track: San Francisco Mabel Joy
All songs written or co-written by Mickey Newbury
https://youtu.be/5CBum4fMS44
The songs of Mickey Newbury came from a place of serenity and sadness, beautiful recollections of the ones we left behind, pretty portraits of love’s bittersweet residue. He pulls the memories to the surface and leads us through the pain, ultimately to a place of resignation and quiet joy. There is no anger in these songs, and little regret, just dusty gratitude for the love he had and the life he lived.
Newbury came from a different time. Born in Houston in 1940, there were no footsteps to follow, no radio folksters to awaken or inspire him. He was a natural poet, with something inside of him that had to get out. As a teenager he locked himself in his room to dream, write poetry and learn to play a wooden guitar.
At nineteen he joined the Air Force and spent a few years in England, then returned to the States to become a songwriter. He chased gigs to showcase his work in Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana, living in his car and working the shrimp boats when he needed money. He ended up in Nashville and, in 1964, signed with Acuff-Rose. Now a full-fledged contract songwriter with Nashville credentials, Newbury honed his craft in the days before labels and wholesale commercialization, and soon found his songs being recorded by the disparate likes of Don Gibson, Tom Jones, the First Edition, Eddy Arnold and Solomon Burke.
He released his first album of his own work, Harlequin Memories, in 1969, married soon thereafter, and produced three classic albums in the coming years, including Looks Like Rain, Frisco Mabel Joy and Heaven Help the Child. These were his finest songs, utterly original and compelling work that was mostly overlooked in the cultural frenzy of the late sixties. But other writers were listening. You can still hear him in their songs.
In 1973, having built a respectable stream of songwriting royalties, Mickey and his wife Susan moved their family to her hometown in Oregon. He continued touring and, in 1980, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. He decided to take a break from the business and focused on his family for a few years. Imagine a Texas songwriter living in Oregon, looking like a cross between Robert Mitchum and Pat Boone, playing golf in double-knit pants.
He came back strong in the nineties and produced a wealth of more fine work before passing away in 2002. Newbury released more than twenty albums over a long career, changing the course of folk and country music alike.
Three things you should know about Mickey Newbury: (1) country DJ Ralph Emery called him the first “hippie-cowboy”, (2) he convinced Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt to pursue songwriting careers in Nashville, and (3) Elvis Presley famously covered “An American Trilogy”, Newbury’s arrangement of classic American folk anthems. [First added to this chart: 03/24/2017]
Buy album
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1970
Track: Me and Bobby McGee
All songs written or co-written by Kris Kristofferson
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-QmpH28Vynt7sHrDZ5lJp5QZR9rDvYWV
Kris Kristofferson is a living testament to the ethic of the singer-songwriter. Introspective and gregarious, astute observer of the ebb and flow of human emotion, courageous, independent. Kristofferson was there in the beginning, living the life, sowing the early seeds. Come to think, maybe he started the whole damn thing.
Born in Brownsville, Texas to a military family, Kristofferson has lived pretty much everywhere, and has done pretty much everything. Army Captain, helicopter pilot, boxer, rugger and runner. Rhodes Scholar, actor (with a Golden Globe Award) and pretty boy. But foremost, a songwriter.
Raised mostly in California and steered by his father towards a military career, his family never forgave him when he quit the army to become an artist. Kris got over it, and has had as much fun in this life as anybody, more than most, just being free and easy.
He landed in Nashville in 1965, swept floors to survive and did practically anything to get someone to listen to his songs. But he was never really part of the Nashville machine, nor would he become an “outlaw” from the traditional country scene like his buddies Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Kristofferson never pretended to be a country boy, never pretended to be anything other than what he was…a road hardened hippie California drifter from Texas. He was the absolute antithesis of the Nashville cowboys that whooped it up on Saturday night and still pretended to go to church on Sunday morning.
The full measure of this man’s work, and the real import of his influence on the art form, can only be appreciated from a distance. He has written great songs, of course, completely original and diverse barnburners that have become country standards. Songs like “For the Good Times”, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, “Help Me Make it Through the Night” and “Me and Bobby McGee”. Songs still instantly recognized and loved around the world.
But perhaps more important than what he did was the way he did it. Kristofferson wrote and produced the way he wanted, not the way some record executive told him to. His original recordings are raw and spare and dusty, delivered with a few scratchy guitar chords and a sandpaper voice, and they were much the better for it. Kris was one of those early preachers of the simple spoken word (along with the likes of Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt and Leonard Cohen), teaching us that the value of the music is in the message, not the package. The book rather than the cover.
Kris Kristofferson has had a long and beautiful journey, and we’re quite lucky that he took us along.
Three things you should know about Kris Kristofferson: (1) he has a Masters degree in English literature, and once wanted to be a novelist, (2) he was romantically involved with Janis Joplin when she died in 1970, and (3) to get Johnny Cash to listen to some of his early songs, Kris landed a helicopter in his front yard. [First added to this chart: 03/24/2017]
Track: Me and Bobby McGee
All songs written or co-written by Kris Kristofferson
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-QmpH28Vynt7sHrDZ5lJp5QZR9rDvYWV
Kris Kristofferson is a living testament to the ethic of the singer-songwriter. Introspective and gregarious, astute observer of the ebb and flow of human emotion, courageous, independent. Kristofferson was there in the beginning, living the life, sowing the early seeds. Come to think, maybe he started the whole damn thing.
Born in Brownsville, Texas to a military family, Kristofferson has lived pretty much everywhere, and has done pretty much everything. Army Captain, helicopter pilot, boxer, rugger and runner. Rhodes Scholar, actor (with a Golden Globe Award) and pretty boy. But foremost, a songwriter.
Raised mostly in California and steered by his father towards a military career, his family never forgave him when he quit the army to become an artist. Kris got over it, and has had as much fun in this life as anybody, more than most, just being free and easy.
He landed in Nashville in 1965, swept floors to survive and did practically anything to get someone to listen to his songs. But he was never really part of the Nashville machine, nor would he become an “outlaw” from the traditional country scene like his buddies Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Kristofferson never pretended to be a country boy, never pretended to be anything other than what he was…a road hardened hippie California drifter from Texas. He was the absolute antithesis of the Nashville cowboys that whooped it up on Saturday night and still pretended to go to church on Sunday morning.
The full measure of this man’s work, and the real import of his influence on the art form, can only be appreciated from a distance. He has written great songs, of course, completely original and diverse barnburners that have become country standards. Songs like “For the Good Times”, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, “Help Me Make it Through the Night” and “Me and Bobby McGee”. Songs still instantly recognized and loved around the world.
But perhaps more important than what he did was the way he did it. Kristofferson wrote and produced the way he wanted, not the way some record executive told him to. His original recordings are raw and spare and dusty, delivered with a few scratchy guitar chords and a sandpaper voice, and they were much the better for it. Kris was one of those early preachers of the simple spoken word (along with the likes of Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt and Leonard Cohen), teaching us that the value of the music is in the message, not the package. The book rather than the cover.
Kris Kristofferson has had a long and beautiful journey, and we’re quite lucky that he took us along.
Three things you should know about Kris Kristofferson: (1) he has a Masters degree in English literature, and once wanted to be a novelist, (2) he was romantically involved with Janis Joplin when she died in 1970, and (3) to get Johnny Cash to listen to some of his early songs, Kris landed a helicopter in his front yard. [First added to this chart: 03/24/2017]
Buy album
- #Sponsored
[First added to this chart: 03/24/2017]
Total albums: 100. Page 1 of 10
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Texas Troubadours - 100 Singer-Songwriter Albums composition
| Decade | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| 1930s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1940s | 0 | 0% | |
| 1950s | 2 | 2% | |
| 1960s | 6 | 6% | |
| 1970s | 18 | 18% | |
| 1980s | 18 | 18% | |
| 1990s | 24 | 24% | |
| 2000s | 17 | 17% | |
| 2010s | 15 | 15% | |
| 2020s | 0 | 0% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Eric Taylor | 1 | 1% | |
| Lucinda Williams | 1 | 1% | |
| James McMurtry | 1 | 1% | |
| Kris Kristofferson | 1 | 1% | |
| Darden Smith | 1 | 1% | |
| Terri Hendrix | 1 | 1% | |
| Delbert McClinton | 1 | 1% | |
| Show all | |||
Texas Troubadours - 100 Singer-Songwriter Albums chart changes
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Texas Troubadours - 100 Singer-Songwriter Albums ratings
86/100 (from 2 votes)
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| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 85/100  | 02/18/2019 00:39 | BorderFreeAndrew | | 81/100 |
| 85/100 | 06/03/2017 14:13 |  bobbyb5 | | 90/100 |
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85/100
From bobbyb5 06/03/2017 14:15
bobbyb5 06/03/2017 14:15
Cool. I just wanted to see if u put Jerry Jeff Walker, and sure enough u did. Awesome.
#191908 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
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