Townes Van Zandt

Van Zandt followed 1969's landmark OUR MOTHER THE MOUNTAIN a year later with this equally definitive album. The latter's big production is scaled down considerably here, and the focus is on a much more subdued, folky feel. The gentle acoustic fingerpicking doesn't obscure the sharply observed fatalism of "None But the Rain" or the ominous "Waiting Around to Die", one of Townes' best (and not coincidentally, darkest) compositions.
There are some colourfully scripted Dylanesque epics in the mold of OUR MOTHER's "Why She's Acting This Way" ("For the Sake of the Song" and "Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel", the latter as close to Dylan's great "To Ramona" as anyone will ever get). "Lungs", covered almost 30 years later by Lyle Lovett, is an unforgettably desperate, poetic plea for connection and redemption, whose sheer bleakness would warrant a warning sticker were it not redeemed by the warm, reassuring country waltz "Don't Take It Too Bad".|