Townes Van Zandt - messages from the outside -May 1977 - by William Hedgepeth the voice recordings in Be Here to Love are frphonecalls to Hedgepeth I think
In addition to the tooth (which he's distinctly proud of), he also has now a relatively permanent girlfriend named Cindy, who drove down here with him from Nashville in a ransacked Plymouth along with their friend Geraldine, a large, kindly dog in a vaguely German Sheperd shaped body.
Now, at 33, he's trying to detoxify himself from highway life and has more or less "settled" with Cindy and Geraldine in an isolated woods cabin south of Nashville. Cindy is a roadwise Texan with long strawberry blonde hair, and apart from other services, her most vital function is to make sure Townes takes his daily Lithium dose and vitamin tablets.
Back in Austin, Texas, nearly a year ago, Townes slipped off the edge in deluxe style after a monumental binge with one the Hemmer Ridge boys. ...After being restored to some degree of psychological functionality, Townes and Cindy abandoned the trailer they'd been sharing in the slums of Austin that's where filmed in Heartworn Highways and eventually made their way to the outskirts of Nashville. Here, he's been a virtual model of stability: chopping firewood, writing some, playing a few gigs, assembling a new album, and generally surviving away in the woods with as little commotion as possible and no notable outbreaks of beserkness, except one. ...

Townes says that probably the main thing that sustains his spirit is the cult that has developed over the years. "It's been a whole lot of moral support sometimes. People come up and lay that stuff about 'addicted fan.' Then you know you're two against the joint as opposed to one." He pauses. "It seems to me that if any people took all those songs seriously they'd be real . . . out there. My favorite fans are the ones who say some album or other saved 'em from suicide. That means it must have meant a lot to 'em in times of craziness. That's kinda nice. If I were, like, Elvis Presley I'd buy 'em all Cadillacs."
"Instead," Cindy sneers, "we're us and we're broke," Townes proclaims, "We're on the borderline, maybe. Most people would consider us broke. But what do we need money for?" he asks, "We've got each other." With this he makes an amorous lunge toward Cindy, which she dodges.
"Ah well, I think things might be OK. With the cabin an' all I feel more settled. Leads me to believe I could be rooted somewhere an' make it in this business, be 'successful' with the public.

Townes "is somebody who looks a little like Hank Williams, even writes like Hank Williams probably would have written. But I tell ya', I think Townes is better. I consider him in the same category as Dylan and McCartney."