These early recordings from 1966 of the late, great Texas songwriter Townes Van Zandt are shockingly consistent for a recording artist who rarely found comfort in the recording studio. Van Zandt’s muse encouraged him to ramble like the bluesmen he revered, so it’s no coincidence he was best when performing in front of a live audience. However, there is an immediacy here with the folk-driven material. “Maryetta’s Song,” “Gypsy Friday, ”“Waitin’ for the Day,” “When Your Dream Lovers Die,” “Colorado Bound,” and the doom of “Black Crow Blues” excel with Van Zandt’s sorrowful Hank Williams-influenced drawl, making him sound like an old, grizzled cowboy (Williams himself died at age 29). “Big Country Blues” holds the seeds of Van Zandt classics “Waitin’ ‘Round to Die” and “Kathleen.” The garage-band blues of “Black Widow Blues” suggests what Van Zandt would’ve sounded like had his calling not been a solitary walk, while the stripped-down acoustic blues shuffle of “Black Jack Mama” proves he was in fuller command of his sound at the beginning of his career than he would be in subsequent years.