Portland based musician Seth Warner and his band with several special guests will present Highway Kind: A celebration of Townes Van Zandt at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 8, at One Longfellow Square, 181 State St. in Portland.

The evening will be full of the songs and stories from the life of this late, legendary and iconic Texas singer-songwriter.

While finding success as a performing singer-songwriter was elusive and fraught with challenges, many of which were his own making — Townes Van Zandt’s songs touched and influenced many and still do to this day. Emmylou Harris, The Cowboy Junkies, Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, Nanci Griffiths, Steve Earle are just a few of countless artists that have covered Van Zandt’s songs and specifically pointed to him as an inspiration.

While not being exactly auto-biographical, Van Zandt’s better-known songs often deal with darkness and feature lonely, troubled characters infused with themes of leaving, life on the road and love left behind. Having toured as a soloist nearly constantly during his career and preferring dive bars to concert halls, Townes was a gifted and able performer, mixing in talking blues, choice upbeat covers and practicing his jokes and one liners with the audiences all along the way.

Joining Warner will be Mike Derosier — electric and acoustic guitar, Duane Edwards — upright bass, Lauren Hastings Genova — violin, Susanne Gerry — vocals and Marty Joyce — drums and percussion.

Tickets cost $12 in advance or $15 day of show and are available at onelongfellowsquare.com.