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It was
30 years ago that Monument records released an album by a young songwriter
from Corsicana, Texas. The songs on that album and its contemporary,
Honky Tonk Heroes by Waylon Jennings, are certainly the foundation of the
Outlaw-Country/Rock-Our Kind of Music revolution. If OKOM has
scriptures, Old Five and Dimers Like Me is the book of Genesis.
It is more than fitting that some of the great songs of Billy Joe Shaver
be revisited in this new Compadre Records release.
The album is officially titled Billy Joe Shaver Live - Try and
Try Again, but that is only slightly misleading. Yes, the songs
were recorded live without overdub or "sweetening" at the KUT studios in
Austin. However, audience participation is at a minimum on the
finished product. That doesn't mean they were necessarily quiet, but
perhaps they were paying this poet the respect he deserves in performance.
Unlike the last live CD, Unshaven, recorded with his son Eddy at
Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta, this disc focuses more on getting the lyrical
message across than delivering sonic atomic honky-tonk rock for the
intelligent listener. Unshaven kicked ass, Try and Try
Again sneaks up and bites your ass like an East Texas killer skeeter.
But the music is still there up front, and the Heart of Texas Band has
definitely settled into a groove with the boss. Multi-instrumental
master Bob Brown, guitarist Jerry Hollingsworth, and drummer Mark
Patterson have played on and off with Billy since right after Eddy's
death. Cornbread the bass player joined most recently but is
masterfully keeping the bottom beat and providing background vocals.
His "call and response" vocals on "Tramp on Your Street" eerily conjure up
Eddy's participation with his father on the same song in concert.
The song listing is a pretty standard Billy Joe Shaver show, with the
exception of a wonderful revisiting of "LA Turnaround" from the very first
LP. Most of the songs are from Billy's upbeat catalog, with the
exception of the beautiful "When the Fallen Angels Fly", one of Billy's
greatest love songs to Brenda. Bob Brown rocks out on "Hottest Thing
in Town" and "Georgia on a Fast Train", and provides a great Western Swing
fiddle to "Honky Tonk Heroes". The slide work on "You Just Can't
Beat Jesus Christ" is itself worth the price of admission.
2004 should be a great year for Mr. Shaver. He is the subject of a
documentary by Luciana Pedraza ready for release, acts in a new movie with
the Owens brothers, Kristofferson, Harry Dean Stanton, and others, and
Compadre Records is supporting him well with regular offerings.
Billy is indeed a Texas treasure.
May the god of your choosing continue to richly bless Billy Joe Shaver.
Try and Try Again is only available on-line. It can be ordered from
the Compadre Records, and will be
offered at Billy's shows when he resumes touring in 2004.
Track
List:
1. Try and Try Again
2. Live Forever
3. Georgia on a Fast Train
4. When the Fallen Angels Fly
5. Hottest Thing in Town
6. Honky Tonk Heroes
7. You Wouldn't Know Love
8. I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal
9. You Asked Me To
10. Black Rose
11. L.A. Turnaround
12. Tramp on Your Street
13. You Can't Beat Jesus Christ
Written by James Odom, December, 2003
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Waco Odie
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