htheroes

This CD was in the working stage for a decade, but has actually been in the making since the mid '70s, when this group led the "outlaw" movement against the "uncountry" pop music (Countrypolitan) dominating Nashville and country radio. Does this scenario sound familiar? You've probably heard all of these songs before on other albums by these guys, but great songs can be done by many artists using numerous interpretations and still shine. And when the songwriter and a group of his biggest fans and best friends perform the songs, it can be an event worthy of hearing.

Billy Joe and son, Eddy, were laying down tracks in 1989 for the first Shaver album, "Tramp on Your Street", at Willie's recording studio, Pedernales. Willie happened by and couldn't resist singing some old and new Billy Joe Shaver tunes with Billy and his band, just for fun. Months later Waylon dropped by the Austin studio and when Willie played the tapes, he too added his talents to some tracks. Ditto for Kris, again some months later. The tapes stayed in the studio until 1998 when Willie and his producer, Eric Paul, decided to mix them. This CD is the result of those sessions.

The venerable song "Honky Tonk Heroes (Like Me)" starts things off featuring Billy Joe, Waylon and Willie singing the classic with some nice guitar work by Eddy. Then Kris does a creditable vocal on "Willie The Wandering Gypsy and Me". Willie sings "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal" and plays some nice guitar (as usual). Waylon and Billy Joe sing "Ain't No God in Mexico" (one of my favorite BJS songs) and do as good as job as you would expect. "You Asked Me Too" again has Willie singing and playing, but put on headphones and listen to Eddy wailing away in the background...GREAT STUFF! All join together on a great version of the beautiful "Oklahoma Wind". There's also various groupings singing "I Couldn't be Me Without You", "Tramp on Your Street", "Easy Come, Easy Go" (aka "Ride Me Down Easy"), and all again contribute to the closer "We Are the Cowboys".

These are all great songs, done from the heart by the four Texas legends. Eddy, on the path of becoming a legend also, stays politely and quietly in the background, but his sizzling guitar work adds such edge and depth to the project that I would put his name and picture on the cover with the others, overall an enjoyable CD.

As is my nature when I enjoy something, I usually end up taking it to excess. I spent the next several nights pulling out old and new recordings by this talented group. The following is some of the ones I enjoyed most.

SHAVER - "Tramp On Your Street"

If you're a Shaver fan, you should own this CD. Of course, some of the songs overlap the CD above, but here Eddy isn't in the background and adds his considerable skills to "Oklahoma Wind", "Tramp on Your Street", and "Old Chunk of Coal". He also adds to "Georgia on a Fast Train", "I'm Gonna Live Forever" and eight other great tunes that slide from honky tonk to rock to blues to ballads. This is an excellent CD that put Billy Joe Shaver back into the thick of Texas music almost a decade ago.

I also recently picked up the German import BJS CD "Honky Tonk Heroes". It has his complete Capricorn record output and his MGM singles all recorded in the mid-'70's. This music has been out of print for years (the vinyl recordings are highly collectable). There are twenty-five songs including Billy's original recordings of "Ride Me Down Easy", "Ain't No God in Mexico" and, of course, "Honky Tonk Heroes". There are several nice re-issues of BJS's early albums that are all worth owning, i.e., "Salt of the Earth". Nice to have this fine music available again.

WAYLON JENNINGS, of course, has his own CD titled "Honky Tonk Heroes", the most famous of the same titled CD trio. These are the original recordings of BJS tunes that made Billy a "hot act" of the '70's outlaw scene and was recorded when Waylon was in his prime. You can't get much better than that. Many consider this his best work. It's a classic.

Waylon's latest studio CD "Closing In On The Fire" is also a great CD. His rough and gravelly voice rips and tears through honky tonk, rock, blues and ballads like we've come to expect. He has switched to the small ARK21 label and now has the complete freedom to do whatever he wants. The result is an interesting mix of original songs. The CD also includes one of the most touching and beautiful songs I've ever heard, "Just Watch Your Mama and Me", with his wife Jessie Colter accompanying him on piano. The old boy still has it and with music this good, I look forward to his next release.

WILLIE NELSON has charted over 100 albums in his prolific career, so there is plenty to choose from. Among my personal favorites are "Shotgun Willie", "Phases and Stages", "Red-Headed Stranger" and "Stardust". His newest CD is his first all instrumental effort titled, "Night And Day". On this CD Willie goes lounge act, but it's a first class lounge (and act). The album features Willie's great acoustic playing that I've always enjoyed listening to. He's joined by Johnny Gimble on fiddle/mandolin, his sister, Bobbie Nelson on piano, Paul English on drums and a quartet of other talented folks providing rhythm and filling out the sound nicely. Like on his "Stardust" album, Willie has chosen nine non-country classic songs composed by some of the world's greatest songwriters plus one self-penned tune.

The CD starts with two dreamy classics from the thirties, "Vous et Moi" (Bullock & Styne) and "Nuages" by Django Reinhardt (the best damn jazz guitarist ever!). These songs set the tone with a soft melodic acoustic start that showcases the beauty of Willie's playing. The band plays softly in the background and occasionally adds a piano solo here, fiddle there, harmonica snaking into the melodies with brushes on the drum. Very nice, romantic and/or relaxing music. The third track and title cut is Cole Porter's "Night and Day", and it picks up the tempo...a lot! It features some great pickin' with harmonica thrown in for good measure- a real toe-tapper. Another classic ballad, Oscar Hammerstein & Jerome Kern's, "All the Things You Are" is nice and soothing. "Sweet Georgia Brown" swings out with Gimble's amazing fiddling leading the way for solos by Willie, then Bobbie, who does consistently wonderful playing throughout, and Jody Payne's striking second acoustic guitar. The beautiful song, "The Gyspy" follows and is sweet...real sweet. The CD continues with "Honeysuckle Rose" by Fats Waller (a personal favorite from the jazzy 20's & 30's), "Over the Waves", "September in the Rain" (we wish) and Willie's "Bandera". This is a perfect album to put on for a romantic evening, or a quiet Sunday morning while drinking coffee and reading the paper, or for relaxing after a hard day. This CD deserves a better reception than it got. I'd let this act play my lounge anytime.

I became a fan of the much maligned KRIS KRISTOFFERSON in 1971, upon hearing "The Silver Tongued Devil And I", his first album. I know his vocals leave a lot to be desired, but so do Bob Dylan's, Butch Hancock's, Neil Young's and Townes Van Zandt'sand I like all of them, too. The truth is nobody can deliver one of Kris' songs better than Kris (except maybe Janis Joplin). The man has written some great classic songs. "Me and Bobby McGee", "Help Me Make It Through the Night", "Sunday Morning Comin' Down" (my favorite), "For the Good Times", "Losing Her Was Easier", "Why Me Lord", "Nobody Wins" and so on and on and on. All of these songs were huge hits for other fine singers, but until you've heard Kris sing them, you may never fully appreciate the pure poetry of the lyrics. My personal recommendation of what CD to get is "Songs of Kristofferson" on CBS Special Products. You can still find it around occasionally. Of course, there are numerous collections of his songs out there now to choose from, just choose the one that has most of your favorites, like I did. His latest album, "The Austin Sessions" also has all my favorite songs. It features guest artists, Jackson Browne, Vince Gill, Steve Earle and Allison Krauss. The liner notes state that on "Sunday Morning Comin' Down", Steve Earle sings harmony vocals. I'm LOL - these guys couldn't harmonize if they had to. The songs are some of his best redone with nicer arrangements, better production, first class band and his vocals are passable, too. A good CD, but I prefer the stark purity of the originals. I hope on his next CD, Kris will write a batch of new songs to blow me away. Funny, but this is almost a direct contrast from the way I started these reviews.

HAPPY HONKY TONKIN' Y'ALL!

Written by Jim Hughes, 9/3/2000