THEOld Quarter was not a salubrious venue. “It was downtown Houston, which was in ruins,” recalls Rex “Wrecks” Bell, who founded the bar in 1965 after a stint in the navy. “There were winos everywhere. It was forgotten, very downtrodden. We were two blocks from the county jail. And there was a strip club. I literally had to get the winos off the steps. I loved them, but I couldn’t let them in. Townes would go out and spend as much time with them as he would inside.”
Wrecks first met Townes Van Zandt when they shared a bill at another Houston folk venue, Sand Mountain, where the strongest drink was coffee. “Townes said to me, ‘Do you drink?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He opened the window and he had a gallon of wine on arope. That rebellious act solidified our friendship. Later on, Iopened the Old Quarter. All of a sudden, Ihad two wine bums and drunks at the end of the bar. It was Townes and Guy Clark. We were accidentally thrusted into songwriter royalty.”
A ratty bar in a ruinous neighbourhood, it earned its place in music history with the release in 1977 of Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas, a record that vividly captures the wild charisma of Townes Van Zandt. The record was not a hit, in line with all previous Townes Van Zandt releases. But by placing the singer on stage in Texas on a hot night in July, it succeeded where six studio albums had not; providing a sympathetic backdrop for his quicksilver poetry.