Dear Townes: we recorded this, er, ‘interpretation’ of If I Needed You with love. Chris sang, played guitar, and wobbled a wobbleboard. Simon also sang, played bass, twiddled knobs and wrote some computer code enabling him to play the theremin using a Wii controller, which is a thing that kids do nowadays instead of going out to play. Sorry about the autotune – there’s this guy called T-Pain now and it’s all his fault. Anyway, hope you like it. Listen to it on your celestial headphones if you can – sounds better that way. Happy Birthday Townes, we miss you.

After last night’s phenomenal Lyle Lovett show at the Charleston Performing Arts Center, and with a new adventure Down Under just days away, Chris finds himself lacing up an old and familiar pair of shoes. Today felt like the right time to shuffle the deck and bring this Townes & Lyle mini blog back to the top of the pack.

Today is a Townes day. The flat is rented, tickets bought. Soon I’ll be heading to Australia for whatever rock and roll misadventure might present itself Down Under. There just remains the now customary and symbolic purchase of a new pair of Converse to mark the occasion. Time, then, to be tyin’ on my flyin’ shoes.

Music and travel are inextricably linked in my brain, and nothing captures the space in between – the inescapable urge to push on, musically and physically – than Townes Van Zandt’s Flyin’ Shoes. If you haven’t heard Lyle Lovett’s version of this song before, I recommend headphones, a quiet corner and an economy-size box of Kleenex as you do:

Being the discerning music lover that you are, I’m sure you and Townes are already well acquainted. But in the tragic and unlikely event you’ve never come across his music before, start with the stunning documentary Be Here To Love Me (which readers in America can watch on Hulu), then pop yourself out to a record store, buy some music and make up for lost time by not leaving the house for three weeks while you get to know each other.

Steve Earle once said that “Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that”. Apart from the bit about cowboy boots, I couldn’t have put it better myself. So it’s a brave a rare talent that can pull off a cover which does justice to and – dare I say – improves upon the Townes original. Ignoring for a second our own forays into the TVZ oeuvre, I’ll say now that Lyle Lovett is probably the only one who can pull it off.

A very brief note about wobbleboards, just to clear up any confusion. Having issued an invitation to you all to join Missing Parsons (the band) on wobbleboard at the GP Guitar Pull this Saturday, it turns out this unique antipodean instrument is completely unheard of in America. Made famous in the UK by adopted Aussie national treasure Rolf Harris, the wobbleboard is a board which wobbles. It creates a gloopy, percussive sound rather like a geyser bubbling:

After two days in the studio laying down a version of Townes Van Zandt’s ‘If I Needed You’ (below), Chris and Simon were sitting in the dining room of Simon’s house reviewing their hard work and trying figure out what was missing from the recording. Spying a large piece of poster board behind the radiator (normally used to display Mrs. Simon’s wonderful jewelry), it dawned on us that the missing link was a wobbling board. Can YOU wobble a board? If so – join us!