|
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
|
|
|
|
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
|
|
Shaver
By Ken Shimamoto
Having recently relocated their offices to downtown Fort Worth, KFWR/95.9-FM The Ranch continues an incredible 25-week series of live outdoor country shows this week with Billy Joe Shaver, a singer-songwriter of such undeniable grit and soul that he doesn’t need to prove it.
Following a Navy stint and a spell in Nashville writing for Bobby Bare’s publishing company, the hard-living, hard-drinking brawler from Corsicana gained his initial notoriety by penning the lion’s share of songs on Waylon Jennings’ epochal Honky Tonk Heroes album. That album’s collision of hard-core honkytonk and rock sounds served to jump-start the “outlaw” country movement. Over the next couple of decades, Shaver abandoned booze and dope for Jesus while riding the tides of the country music biz. He re-emerged in the early ’90s with a rock-ish band called Shaver (featuring his hotshot guitar-slinger son Eddy) and an album called Tramp On Your Street that quickly captured the ears of the nascent alt-country crowd.
The last few years haven’t been kind to Shaver: He lost both his mother and his three-time wife to cancer in 1999; his son Eddy was dead from a heroin overdose at age 38 in December 2000; he suffered an onstage heart attack on the road the following year. His most recent c.d., last fall’s Freedom’s Child, has a more pensive, acoustic sound than his last few releases and proves that he’s still got the goods.
For this show, Shaver will be appearing with a stripped-down unit that will cast his rugged voice and solid songcraft in sharp relief. They should sound just fine ricocheting off the walls near Sundance Square.
6pm Wed, May 7 at 8.0, 111 3rd St, FW. 817-336-0880.
Email this Article...
