Originally posted to Instagram, March 7, 2020.
The best thing about Pisces season is Pisces music. While I can't write about every album by every Pisces musician (there are far too many), I'm glad to have a thematic reason to write about some of the treasures in my collection that I've never posted here before. In honor of his birthday, here's 'High, Low and In Between' by Townes Van Zandt.
I've written a lot about Townes Van Zandt, so hopefully you're not tired of hearing about him. He was never a star during his lifetime, but he was someone other songwriters looked up to and respected. During his most prolific period in the late 60s and early 70s, folkie singer-songwriters were a dime a dozen, but Townes' particular brand of haunted, poetic Southwestern folk music was like nothing anyone else was doing at the time.
Emotionally speaking, 'High, Low and In Between' lives up to its name, but unlike most Townes albums, this one looks on the bright side more often than it explores the shadows. The two great Townes songs that made their debut on this record, "You Are Not Needed Now" and "To Live Is To Fly" are among the most genuine love songs he ever wrote, and the two (rather uncharacteristic) gospel songs,"Two Hands" and "When He Offers His Hand" are of the "it's so great that God loves us and we're going to be saved" type. But that doesn't stop him from declaring, in the comedic "No Deal", that "If there ain't no whiskey and women, Lord, behind those heavenly doors, I'm gonna take my chances down below- and of that you can be sure!"
The emotional counterpoint to all of this comes mainly from two songs, "Highway Kind" and the title track. Both songs use similar imagery, evoking the image of a lonesome wanderer looking for answers and companionship on the road. Townes recorded this album while grieving the death of his girlfriend Leslie Jo Richards, and it's tempting to see these two songs as coming out of that experience, but we'll never know for sure.
That said, this is not an album about grief and loss. It's about getting lucky, getting saved, getting up and starting over again. Townes himself said it best: "To live's to fly, all low and high. So shake the dust off of your wings and the tears out of your eyes."
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