Unlike Van Zandt's previous album Delta Momma Blues, which features very sparse arrangements, High Low and in Between incorporates a folk-rock edge.

In the comical "No Deal" the drunken narrator falls in love with a girl who has "barely turned fifteen" and declares if Heaven has no whiskey and women, "I'm gonna take my chances down below and of that you can be sure", while "Highway Kind" is a dark minor key ballad that explores the resigned loneliness of a drifting troubadour, something Van Zandt knew about all too well.

Although the relationship had nearly run its course, Van Zandt's guitarist Mickey White told biographer John Kruth that the sudden shock of her death left the singer "devastated.

Earle remembers that he wore out his copy of High, Low and In Between learning the song, which has "a jillion words", and claims that even Van Zandt didn't know it anymore in the last ten years of his life.

When the New York based Tomato imprint reissued six of Van Zandt's Poppy label albums during the late Seventies, the singer offered the following insight into the creation of the song to Lola Sweeny, who penned the liner notes: "I wrote 'Mr.

AllMusic states, "Van Zandt crams an amazing amount of brilliant imagery into the song's brief two-minute duration, a performance that's both impressive and impenetrable."

The liner notes to the Charly Record reissue of the album claim that the title track, with its line "Us ramblers will get the travellin' done" may "simply appear to be a gentle reflective ballad – but without doubt, it is one of the finest autobiographical songs he ever wrote".

Mike Scheidt, the lead vocalist and guitarist of American doom metal band YOB also covered "To Live is To Fly", released in 2014.

"[5] The cover of High, Low and In Between features Van Zandt in a white shirt standing in front of a dimly lit recording studio with his hands behind his back.