Wherever the road led him on his brief fifty-two year tour of this sad and beautiful planet, Townes Van Zandt's reputation had a way of preceding him. He was a living legend ... albeit, more often than not, a lesser-known one. Van Zandt was a rambler, gambler, hell-bent drunk and arguably the greatest American songwriter of his day. The first time Emmylou Harris laid eyes on him in the late 1960s, at Folk City in Greenwich Village, she swore Van Zandt was the re-incarnation of Hank Williams "but with a twist." That "twist" to which Emmylou referred was Van Zandt's ...

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