"For me, 'Rake' is unforgettable," producer Frangipane marvels in the 2007 book To Live's To Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt. "When we finally nailed it, we knew it was the special moment on the album." Although these songs are particularly dark, the album does include several tender ballads rich with Van Zandt's poetic imagery, such as "Come Tomorrow" and "Tower Song".
Delta Momma Blues includes some of Van Zandt's most heralded compositions, including the menacing "Rake" and the cautionary "Nothin'". Although many listeners assume that "Nothin'" is about drug addiction, Van Zandt explained in a 1995 Dutch television interview that he wrote it immediately after reading The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. In October 1970, Van Zandt told WBAI DJ Ron Fass that he had written "Rake" in Wilmington, Delaware, after reading another novel by Kazantzakis, Saint Francis.