In a 2005 interview with Under the Radar, Margaret Brown explained her approach to telling the story of Townes van Zandt: "I think a lot of my producers were worried that the film would be really elliptical and not a normal kind of music doc and it wouldn't be received well. One of my producers, at Toronto when it opened, he gave me this whole speech beforehand about how I had to explain the film to the audience or they weren't gonna be able to follow it. It seems like everyone kind of goes with it and they feel like they're falling into it and they like it. But maybe people didn't tell me because they know I'm the filmmaker and I might be fragile. I have no idea.
I wanted the film to feel like a tapestry. Like the way you meet somebody, you don't hear about their birth and end with their death... I wanted the film to feel like if you went on 10 dates with Townes and you were gradually revealed certain things. Sometimes it may be in order chronologically, but other times, the way things build on each other is not chronological. People don't think that way. Why should films be structured that way?"