The Late Great Townes Van Zandt (1972)

Townes Van Zandt never chased a hit, and this album, which includes his own Pancho and Lefty, is the poetic bedrock of Texas outlaw songwriting. His fingerpicked guitar and desolate imagery treat songs as literature rather than product; the outlaw streak here is artistic stubbornness, and later Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard took Pancho and Lefty to number one.