The Try-Works

Billy Joe Shaver is, in my opinion, the finest songwriter in country music, and I’ll put one of his albums up against any album ever made: The Earth Rolls On.  It was recorded shortly after Billy Joe Shaver’s wife died of cancer, and the lead guitarist was Shaver’s son, Eddy, who was rapidly losing a battle with heroin addiction, and who died of an overdose after the sessions had completed, but before the album was released.

Anyway, this is one of my favorite songs off the album: “I Don’t Seem To Fit Anywhere.”

And, as a bonus, two more from a set Billy Joe Shaver played in memory of his son: “You Are the Star in My Heart” and one of the best songs ever recorded by anyone in any genre, “Live Forever.”

And, lastly, one of the few songs I could find on You Tube played by Billy Joe Shaver and Eddy Shaver together: “Honky Tonk Heroes.”

Of course, if you know anything about country music, you know that “Honky Tonk Heroes” was the title song on the Waylon Jennings album that kicked off the outlaw country movement.  Nigh every song on that album was written by Billy Joe Shaver, in fact.  Lore has it that Jennings promised to record a whole album of Shaver songs after one too many drinks at a Willie Nelson picnic.  And, after a certain amount of time had passed and still no album had been released, Shaver hunted him down and threatened him with bodily harm if he didn’t get cracking.  Honky Tonk Heroes was the result.