Townes Van Zandt

This is another stalwart collection from Townes Van Zandt, with not a dud in the bunch. The melodies here are strong, the lyrics full of Van Zandt's razor-sharp insight, and the production is sparse and to the point, bringing to mind the inconspicuous polish of High, Low and in Between. The feel here is a balance between folk and country, with Van Zandt's voice and guitar up front, letting the songs speak for themselves. The tunes are full of heartbreak and hopelessness, making it a great album to put on during, or right after, the breakup of an affair. "No Place to Fall" sports one of Van Zandt's strongest melodies with a melancholy chorus that immediately imbeds itself in your mind. Pedal steel, a brief mandolin solo, and almost inaudible percussion add to the despairing feel of the track. "When She Don't Need Me" is another hopeless love song, this time with a Tex-Mex feel and a measured tempo that wrings every bit of drama out of the lyric. The title track has to be one of Van Zandt's saddest songs; images of winter, desolate hillsides, and loneliness complement an achingly beautiful melody. "No Place to Fall" is a teary waltz, a love song that pleads for connection and tries to be seductive, but ultimately succumbs to its own pessimism. On the slightly brighter side, there's an Everly Brothers influenced country-rock take of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love." "Snake Song" is a blues that could be about a poisonous snake or the obvious phallic object. The song ends with a fatal punch line. "Brother Flower," a striking meditation on mortality and the impermanence of love, has a melody that recalls Gordon Lightfoot's "Don Quixote" while "Dollar Bill Blues" is a sea shanty celebrating gambling, booze, self-destruction, and the desperate late-night search for love, or maybe just sex. None of the tunes on Flyin' Shoes have yet achieved the iconic status of Van Zandt's best-known work, but in the early 2000s, as his back catalog is being reissued and reevaluated, that might well change. [Fat Possum re-released the CD in 2007.] ~ j. poet, All Music Guide