I just now got a copy of your book on Townes, and am inspired to write you with my compliments for a job well done. Having read other bios, articles, seen documentaries and DVD's etc., I think you have by far offered the most realistic portrait of the Townes I knew and loved. Thanks for setting the record straight.

--Earl Willis, The Woodlands, Texas

I am very appreciative of your time and dedication to the extensive research you put into this biography. I applaud your whole heartedness and compassion to this legendary songwriter. Through laughs and jaw-dropping insightful anecdotes, you have absolutely created an interpersonal memory of Townes.

--Amy Worth, Downingtown, Pennyslvania

I just finished reading your wonderful and very insightful Townes Van Zandt biography, on a trip through France. On the road--"by the hum of the wheels" so to speak--my wife and I for the first time after many years again listened to a cassette from April 11th, 1989 with the two-hour interview with Townes on our Swiss National Radio DRS3's weekly "Country Special" program!

I have been the Country Special's producer for the past 20 years, so in 1989 I was still pretty new to the job, but I had been a Townes-fan for quite a few years already--and my wife and I had thought from the very start that whenever there was an artist coming for an interview to the studio in Basel, we would propose to have them at our home for dinner and have them stay overnight. And Townes was our first in quite a long line of great musicians.... Of course we have always remembered that visit as a very special one--and now, thanks to your biography I can much better see where Townes was at in his life during that time. And what was before and what came after those eleven sober months. I do remember that he drank Coke exclusively at our home. Two days after the interview ... we saw him live and in great shape at the Folk Club in Villingen, Germany. We also saw him in concert again in later years, in Zurich at the Rote Fabrik and in either 94, 95 or 96 in Basel at the Kaserne, but that was indeed a very sad and drunk show and people--us included--felt pretty uneasy. We did talk to him backstage afterwards, but were not sure whether he still remembered us or not.

--Geri Stocker, Schweizer Radio DRS 3, Zürich, Switzerland

In my opinion, legends like Townes, Guy Clark, and Lightnin' Hopkins should be more than just footnotes. I am glad someone else agrees.

My father, until recently, lived about a hundred yards from the Dido Fire Station. One of my father's neighbors was a member of the Van Zandt family, and though I never asked, I wondered why a Van Zandt would be living in an incorporated area without much going for it. After reading about the history of Dido, I now know that the pecan orchard where we gathered papershell pecans was planted by Townes' ancestors. My father asked a friend who lives next to the Dido Fire Station if he had heard of Townes. As it turns out, my father's friend used to drink with Townes at a bar on 287. In fact, he said that one time Townes asked him to go to his car and get some money out of the trunk so Townes could keep drinking. Upon opening the trunk, my father's friend saw about $20,000. He took out a hundred and returned to the bar. "Did you take any for yourself?" Townes asked. "Nah," my Dad's friend replied. "I don't want your money."

--Heath Dollar

I have just read your piece on Doctor Hot Pepper. It's sad to read in a way because I miss Doc so much, but mostly I'm absolutely delighted to be transported back fifteen years and completely incredulous that you could so completely nail so many of the essential truths of the Doctor Hot Pepper experience. I played guitar with Doc in his Fabulous Orchestra for several years. I would guess 1994 and 1995, somewhere in that area. The New Year's Eve show you describe seems frighteningly familiar to one that I played at Madam's Organ, but it would not surprise me to learn that all of Doc's NYE shows were exactly like that. I can do a pretty credible impersonation of Doc, to tell you the truth. [The King is in town!!!! Make way for the King! Doctor Hot Pepper! HELLO! The King is in TOWN, pfffffffFFFFTT!] But there is no way in hell I can describe one of his shows, the good, the bad, the downright bizarre, and not have my audience completely convinced that I am exaggerating half of it and just plain making up the other half. Now I have your piece as a point of reference, and I thank you for that along with allowing me to relive some of the best times of my life. Doc taught me more than I could ever have thanked him for. I wish I'd been able to give him some sense of that, although in certain respects within his own world his legend needed little buttressing.

Thanks again for your piece. It was a real joy. I hope everything's on the one, pffffFFFTTT!

--Chuck Fields