I like his songs. Even the throwaways like Heavenly House Boat Blues have real craft in the lyrics. A great writer but perhaps not a great voice.   His chord structure was not complicated or unnecessary but it carried the lyric and the melody. Listen Our Mother The Mountain. The ascending and descending bass lines could carry the melody by themselves.

Sixteen Summers, Fifteen Falls reads like a medieval cautionary tale in present day English. At first it seems a murder ballad but in the end it isn't.

Let me tell you a story 'bout a girl I knew
Fairest skin with eyes of blue
I swear to the lord that I loved her true
It's a year now she's been gone

Tecumseh Valley follows this same path. It is as if Townes wrote an entire novella and told a complete story in a few short verses.

I would strongly endorse his music.

Don Meixner