Townes Van Zandt: A Far Cry from Dead : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

When Townes Van Zandt died, on January 1st, 1997, he left a legacy of being, arguably, the finest songwriter ever to come out of Texas. He also left behind a box of DAT tapes containing stark versions of many of his best songs recorded solo with unadorned guitar and vocals. Van Zandt's widow, Jeanene, handed the tapes over to producer Eric Paul, who fleshed the songs out with top-notch Nashville studio players to create A Far Cry From Dead, Van Zandt's posthumous major-label debut.

The gimmicky title invites skepticism, but the result is stunning. Working around the best vocals Van Zandt ever laid down, as weathered and powerful as Johnny Cash on his last two albums, Paul and his musicians bring a ballsy kick to songs like "To Live's to Fly" -- a track that, were Van Zandt still around, might have heralded a creative rebirth. Occasionally, the producer's enthusiasm overpowers the beauty of Van Zandt's words; "For the Sake of the Song" is better served by the plaintive reading of the 1969 original than by the booming version here. But "Waitin' 'Round to Die" is nothing short of harrowing, while "Pancho and Lefty" finds Van Zandt reclaiming his best-known song from Willie and Merle and stripping away the gloss. For those not yet familiar with Van Zandt's work, A Far Cry From Dead is a fine place to start; for the rest of us, it's a powerful coda. (RS 818)

RICHARD SKANSE