While growing up in Texas, I knew who Townes Van Zandt was, but I never really gave him or his work much thought. I knew he had written a lot of songs, but never really cared much who recorded them. That was until I watched this film. For those of you who have never heard of Van Zandt, he's the genius behind hits like "Poncho and Lefty" by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard and "If You Needed Me" by Don Williams and Emmylou Harris. His songs have been recorded by the likes of Mudhoney, Steve Earle, Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, Norah Jones, Bob Dylan, and many more. So in the grand scheme of things, Van Zandt is a singer/songwriter legend...especially in the great state of Texas. I knew that he died at a fairly young age (early 50s), but I never knew how or why, or more importantly, the obsessive self destructive behavior that he seemed to exhibit from his early 20s on. I suppose his hard living and resulting early death shouldn't have come as much of a surprise considering one of his first songs was titles "Waiting Round to Die". Whatever the case, this documentary takes a hard look at Townes and shows us the good and the often times very bad. There's a ton of interviews with some of Townes' best friends (Guy Clark, Steve Earle, etc) and many of the artists that had hits with his songs. There's also some incredible concert footage and family videos that I've never seen before. In the end, it gave me a much greater appreciation of the man as a songwriter, and made me sad for the hard life that he lived. Even if you're not a fan of folk or country music, you should give Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt a try. I think you'll find yourself searching the extras for more bonus footage much like I did.