I have liked many singer songwriters from America and some may call their work country or US Folk music but the really good ones defy categorisation I reckon. John Prine is up there and so is this man, Townes Van Zandt, dead before his time at 52 from the affects of alcohol abuse or addiction whichever way you interpret that terrible affliction, he remained a peerless song writer to the end

swappers:

Townes Van Zandt - Pancho and Lefty

a classic here but there are many more songs just as worthy of enquiry check him out 

Townes Van Zandt lived and died a relative unknown; singers of a persuasion for Americana knew his songs, but his relatively aimless life was not suited to hit-making. In 1972 he recorded “Pancho and Lefty” for his third album.  Five years later Emmylou Harris covered it on Luxury Liner. Six years after that Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard had a No. 1 country hit with it. I’m guessing that Townes made more from the song than any other. Townes died in 1997, a very old 52 from the affects of alcohol addiction. Two years later his widow found a set of tapes he had made in a neighbor’s garage, just guitar and voice. She took them to Nashville where additional instruments were added, tastefully complementing his world-weary voice (purists might disagree) but a unique writing style and delivery so dry it its desert sand,  rattlesnakes and Bourbon Whisky - (thanks to psychoactivelectricity)