Is anyone more entitled to make a Townes Van Zandt covers album than Steve Earle, who named a son after the Texas singer-songwriter? As Van Zandt's protégé, Earle knows these songs intimately — some of the greatest in the folk-country canon — and delivers them with the ease of breathing, mostly unadorned. His voice lacks Van Zandt's sweet frailty, but it brings gruff tenderness to classics like "To Live Is to Fly." Two songs break form: the apocalyptic "Lungs," which adds dusty break beats and noise guitar, and "Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold," a duet with son Justin Townes Earle — the sound of a torch being passed again.