Heartworn Highways DVD

The best music and the best whiskey come from the same part of the country.

In 1976, producer Graham Leader and director James Szalapski documented the outlaw songwriter scene that extended from Austin and Nashville. Included were then relative unknowns Steve Earle (ten years before he released his first album), Rodney Crowell, and John Hiatt, plus their musical mentors Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, who delivers a memorable scene in his trailer-home, drunk with a BB gun. Born was Heartworn Highways, a cult classic documentary among fans of the genre. The film was not released theatrically until 1981. The documentary covers singer-songwriters whose songs are more traditional to early folk and country music instead of following in the tradition of the previous generation.