Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997) was a singer-songwriter whose work was popularized by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard and Lyle Lovett, among many others. Some of his tunes (“Pancho and Lefty,” “For the Sake of the Song,” “To Live is to Fly”) are masterpieces of songwriting craft. Outside of a period of relative stability in Nashville, however, his life was troubled, marred by alcohol and heroin addiction, divorces, bad management, and his own choice to live off the grid. We offer this reflection for Townes Van Zandt’s birthday (March 7), with a little help from his biographer, John Kruth.