Townes

I picked up Steve Earle's new album, "Townes", today and have been listening to it pretty much nonstop all day. As the title suggests, this is Steve Earle covering the songs of Townes Van Zandt. Most of the time cover songs have me wishing I was listening to the original, but this one is different. Earle is one of my favorite artists of all time, I've been listening to him since high school, when "Guitar Town" came out, and I own most of his albums. I am going to go so far as to say that "Townes" is one of his best albums, if not his best. It's right up there with "Transcendental Blues" in my book. Highlights include "Colorado Girl" and "Lungs" (with Tom Morello on guitar), the latter sounding like it could have been a bonus track on Earle's last album, "Washington Square Serenade". Somewhere Townes Van Zandt is smiling at his old friend.