And the snakes are sleeping where the weeds are thick.

The best song on the album, however, is "Jaded Lover"; in fact, it is as good as anything Walker has ever done. A thumping, free-wheeling number, it is the cynical parting shot of a man leaving a possessive but fickle lover:

Yeah, you may have had thirty lovers behind you

Heh, I can feel you but I sure can't find you

Seems like you would have found your own self by now

But late at night your old lovers' tears come back

Faces in your dreams, fingers in your back

Voices of the memories cryin' out loud.

Well, I can see you are an angel

Whose wings just won't unfold

Tune up your harp, polish your old halo

Yeah, the only kind of man that you ever wanted

Was the one that you knew you'd never hold very long

You're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go.

Walker's version of Guy Clark's "Like a Coat from the Cold" is unpretentious but loving, the lyrical confession of a drifter who's finally found a woman worth settling down for.

All this isn't very complex, but then neither are most of the ordinary human problems and emotions that Walker sings about. Those simple preoccupations, like Walker himself, are unsophisticated and unadorned. For the most part Ridin' High is Walker at his best: raunchy, unrestrained, spontaneous, and terribly human, grabbing life and hugging it madly. This record isn't awfully deep, but it has an irresistible charm. Most important, it's a lot of fun, and that's all Jerry Jeff Walker ever really meant to be.