High, Low and In Between
Packaged as two albums on one disc, these are among the best of Van Zandt's erratic studio recordings. The first is often overlooked, but it has many songs of dark, marvelous realism, true and accurate as arrows. Kevin Eggers's production is never heavy or busy: he mostly lets the songs breathe beside piano and guitar. And the poetic heights of the title track and "The Highway Kind" are remarkable by any standard.Late Greatis important for a little known Guy Clark song "Don't Let the Sunshine Fool You," as well as an orchestrated "Pancho and Lefty" and the sweetly simple "Heavenly Houseboat Blues." Both records show Townes's belief in the abracadabra of words, that their magic is as primary to being human as love and death and kindness and cruelty--those intense qualities that distinguish his work.--Roy Kasten