Living with the Law (album)

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Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Robert Christgau	[4]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[6]

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The Boston Globe opined that Whitley's "unusual bent-note singing and spare but deeply affecting lyrics mark him as a true discovery."^[7] The New York Times wrote that the album "is about dust, danger, two-lane roads and barren landscapes; it's about running and feeling like an outlaw, not so much in the literal as in the emotional sense of being detached and therefore free, of being at home on the outskirts of right and wrong."^[8] Living with the Law was named ninth best album of 1991 in the Pazz & Jop critics poll.^{[citation needed]} It is listed in Tom Moon's 2008 book, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.^[9]

Whitley later dismissed his first album as "too polished".^[10]

All tracks written by Chris Whitley.

1. "Excerpt" – 0:17
2. "Living with the Law" – 3:42
3. "Big Sky Country" – 4:45
4. "Kick the Stones" – 4:12
5. "Make the Dirt Stick" – 3:33
6. "Poison Girl" – 3:27
7. "Dust Radio" – 5:08
8. "Phone Call from Leavenworth" – 4:47
9. "I Forget You Every Day" – 4:33
10. "Long Way Around" – 4:27
11. "Look What Love Has Done" – 3:23
12. "Bordertown" – 4:30
13. "[unnamed]" – 0:18

• Chris Whitley – vocals, National guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar
• Ronald Jones – drums
• Daryl Johnson – bass guitar
• Bill Dillon – guitar, pedal steel
• Malcolm Burn – keyboards, tambourine

Additional personnel

• Peter Conway – harmonica (4)
• Alan Gevaert – bass (5)
• Daniel Lanois – guitar (6)
• Deni Bonet – viola on (6)
• Dan Whitley – guitar on (10)