Even in the 1990s, as he was finishing a lifelong quest to drink himself to death, Townes Van Zandt continued to write, record, and perform. After he died on New Year's Day, 1997, his last tapes started leaking out. There was The Highway Kind, a collection of live originals and studio covers, and Last Rights, a"CD documentary" of songs, stories, and interviews. All this belated work features a frail but unflinching voice haunted by its approaching rendezvous. Now comes this collection of 13 voice-and-guitar demos from 1989 through 1996 that Van Zandt's widow, Jeanene, turned over to producer Eric Paul, who tastefully fleshed them out with overdubs from a Nashville country-rock band. It's the most accessible of the man's posthumous releases, with Van Zandt revisiting some famous songs ("Pancho & Lefty,""For the Sake of the Song") and some obscure ones from a wearier but wiser perspective. He also reveals two unreleased tunes--the bouncy comic number"Squash" and the heart-shriveling"Sanitarium Blues," an autobiographical talking blues about his stay in a mental hospital. --Geoffrey Himes