My hands are both callused and worn They're some fingers that are gone off of one I'm rough as a cob but I do a good job Yeah, I am a hard working man. - "Hard Workin' Man" The thing is, even though he acts a little awkward when asked to talk about himself, that's pretty much all he's ever done through his songs. He was born dirt poor. His father was a dangerous man; abandoning his family shortly after Billy Joe was born was probably the best thing he ever did for his newborn son. His mother tried to provide, but after a while she left him to her mother's care in Waco and disappeared as well. We know this because Billy Joe wrote about it too...

My grandma's old-age pension is the reason I'm standing here today. - "I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train" That pension, plus hard work picking cotton that began when he was 12 years old, lifted Shaver out of that world and into the Navy the day he turned 17. After that he worked in rodeos, got into fights, drank too much, hitched out to Los Angeles and eventually wound up in Nashville with a head full of songs he'd never bothered to write down or commit to tape. Somehow he still managed to catch Bobby Bare's attention, which led him toward a friendship with Waylon Jennings that began when the irascible country star recorded an album that consisted almost entirely of material from the young and unknown Shaver. That record, Honky Tonk Heroes, put Billy Joe on the map in '73. Once there, though, he kept wandering the back routes rather than joining the traffic down on Music Row. Elvis Himself covered his songs; so did Kris Kristofferson, a sign of powerful respect from the archetype of modern alternative songwriting. Yet Shaver remained elusive. His first wife, Brenda Joyce Tindell, divorced him. They remarried, divorced again, and then did the same one more time. He seemed incapable of being faithful or forgiving himself for his transgressions. He sank into heroin addiction. His son, Eddy, a guitarist of enormous potential, followed in his father's footsteps and died on New Year's Eve 2000-a year after Brenda and Billy Joe's mother both succumbed to cancer. Nothing Shaver did, in other words, reflected any ability to make wise choices in life. And yet sorrow made him wiser, never leading him to the point of learning the obvious lessons and tempering his ways, but definitely opening his reflections of life to a more timeless perspective. More like the woods in these Tennessee hills. That helps explain the sound of Everybody's Brother: It's unpolished even by Shaver's usual standards, with bare instrumentation, not much electricity and rough spots in his vocals like knotholes on a pine wall. As for the songs, they're typical of his work, with the chords and melody kept as simple as possible to let the words ring clear. Those words focus mainly on the two subjects that Shaver has most favored through the years, though his perspective on both has changed. He addresses love now with the kind of affection that only time can bring: "She's the mother of your children," he marvels over the slow-dance sway of "To Be Loved by a Woman." "Thank God she can't leave you alone." It's salvation, though, that dominates Everybody's Brother. All of Shaver's albums touch on this, though never with the grit he musters here. "Jesus Is the Only One Who Loves Us" offers snapshots of people living on the underside of life, from stumbling drunks to guttered junkies, each one followed by a chorus that reminds us that their Savior loves them still. And on "The Tough Get Going," a more secular meditation, he doesn't forget to insist, "Jesus Christ is the toughest man alive." Then there's the title cut, on which the wheezing drone of a pump organ transports us into the primitive church that lives somewhere deep in Shaver's scarred heart. The words in this song, more than any other Shaver has written, put this matter of faith on the table as a matter of urgent attention. They warn of damnation through apocalyptic images drawn from both Billy Sunday and the young Bob Dylan. Frankly, it's a little scary. And that doesn't bother Shaver one bit. "Being a Christian, I can't get away from that," he says, grinning perhaps at the irony of the idea. "One of my songs on there is ‘If You Don't Love Jesus, Go to Hell.' And I sing a Johnny Cash song with Kris Kristofferson...‘You're So Heavenly Minded, You're No Earthly Good.' I should have written that one myself ..." Shaver laughs, as he does every minute or so in conversation. "I don't care what people think. They think I'm using Jesus for something. Well, back when I first came to Nashville, the very first song I had recorded was ‘Jesus Christ, What a Man,' by the Oak Ridge Boys. And every album I've done has at least one or two songs about Jesus on it. Waylon Jennings called me a Bible-thumper because back then, it wasn't popular. But now that it is, people say, ‘Man, you're riding Jesus.' What they don't know is that it's a burden. I have an obligation to do that. We all do." Like many believers, Shaver can pinpoint the moment of his salvation. It's easy, in his case, because he marked the event with a song. "That's when I wrote ‘Old Chunk of Coal,'" he remembers. "I was out on a cliff at the narrows of the Harpeth River [in central Tennessee], close to Kingston Springs. I'd been doing everything in the world, driving my family crazy. I was about to die. There was no moon-a cloudy night. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face. But as I was coming down from that mountain at about four in the morning, I sang the first half of that song and got it into my heart. And I asked God to forgive me for what I'd done...I was the king of the sinners, and yet he forgave me. "Then I got my family....boy, they were mad, and loaded them up and moved out to Houston. If I'd stayed in Nashville, it would have been impossible for me to clean up. But in Houston, I prayed hard. I quit smoking, drinking and doping. I dropped down from about 230 pounds to 150. And one morning I finished the second half of that song." In "Old Chunk of Coal," Shaver predicts that he's "going to be a diamond someday." Truth be told, that transformation remains a work in progress-but this absence of resolution invests his faith with a real world quality that separates his perspective from the holier-than-thou smugness of much Christian music nowadays. "Well, I'm coming from a different direction than that," Shaver says, with a shrug. "But as far as I'm concerned, if you write anything about God, you can't go wrong. A lot of times people will say, ‘That guy is in church just to be seen.' Yeah, but he got into church, and that's fine with me. And if they keep on with it, like my grandma used to say, they'll get it done for real." The sound, like the message, of gospel music has become a defining quality of Shaver's latter-period output. He insists that it's because the music of the church is real. "I'm pretty sure that the same guy that wrote ‘How Great Thou Art' also did ..." And here, Shaver, perhaps confusing songwriters Stuart K. Hine and Stuart Hamblen, starts to sing Hamblen's "I Won't Go Hunting With You, Jake," with its references to "chasing women. Put them hounds back in that pen. Stop your silly grinnin'." "What a wonderful song!" he says, shaking his head. "I ain't written one that good yet. It's real, because he came from one end to the other. It'd be hard to top that or something like ‘Amazing Grace' and a lot of the old African-American gospel, because they were new and young into Christianity, so they were deadly honest." Honesty is the key to Billy Joe Shaver, who is probably the most candid songwriter alive. Whether chronicling the profane or the divine, he writes only from experience. A lot of this comes from his strong sense of recall; his memories, stretching back to hearing black kids singing along to Jimmie Rodgers records, completes the feedback loop that began the blues nourishing the Singing Brakeman's soul. Always, he wrote without thought of the consequences. Even when his wife left him in a fury after hearing the brutal candor of his song "Ragged Old Truck," Shaver remained incapable of artifice. "I can't allow that to happen," he insists. "I made a deal with myself a long time ago that I would always tell the truth in my songs. It's like you hear from a lot of rap music. I mean, some of it's great; it's poetry off the streets. But some of these guys are coming out of college. They have nice homes. They're not streetwise. I can always tell which ones are real. That's how I've always written. I'm just blessed that way."
]]> http://www.americansongwriter.com/2008/07/amazing-grace-the-life-and-salvation-of-billy-joe-shaver/feed/ 0 http://www.americansongwriter.com/2007/07/levon-helm-the-ryman-71807-nashville-tenn/ http://www.americansongwriter.com/2007/07/levon-helm-the-ryman-71807-nashville-tenn/#comments Sat, 21 Jul 2007 22:52:18 +0000 americansongwriter http://www.americansongwriter.com/?p=8820
You'd have never know that the voice behind The Band battled throat cancer in the ‘90s; it was as gripping and strong as ever, and Helm ripped through timeless tunes from his band's catalog...]]>

What a show... The Americana Music Association, in its first stab at such a weighty concert undertaking, brought the 67-year-old singer/drummer to Music City for a classic night. You'd have never know that the voice behind The Band battled throat cancer in the ‘90s; it was as gripping and strong as ever, and Helm ripped through timeless tunes from his band's catalog, in addition to some cherry-picked old traditionals and even some Springsteen.What a show... The Americana Music Association, in its first stab at such a weighty concert undertaking, brought the 67-year-old singer/drummer to Music City for a classic night. You'd have never know that the voice behind The Band battled throat cancer in the ‘90s; it was as gripping and strong as ever, and Helm ripped through timeless tunes from his band's catalog, in addition to some cherry-picked old traditionals and even some Springsteen. We especially enjoyed his cover of "Atlantic City." The Boss would've been very proud. Helm's new album, Dirt Farmer, will be released on October 30th via Vanguard Records. No questions asked...go buy it!

americanamusic.org
http://www.levonhelm.com

Set List:
Mail Train
Ophelia
Memphis
Fanny Mae
Scratch My Back
I Wanna Know
Goodbye My Love
Got Me a Woman
Atlantic City
Ashes of Love
Did You Love Me
Sittin' On Top of the World (with Sam Bush)
One More Shot
Wide River (with Buddy Miller)
Rough and Rocky (with Emmylou Harris)
Evangeline (with Emmylou Harris)
Rag Mama
Beautiful Lies
R + R Shoes
Shape I'm In
Rain Down
Tears of Rage
Chest Fever
Weight
Encore: I Shall Be Released

What germinated in this country as a genre heralded by Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, then nourished by the likes of John Lennon and Neil Young, the protest song still survives in a myriad of forms and styles-but at times feels cliché and flat. Then The Polyphonic Spree rolls in on a Technicolor M1 Abrams packed with modernized flower-power that squash any doubts you had about the life-force of beautiful dissent.Label: TVT RECORDS
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

What germinated in this country as a genre heralded by Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, then nourished by the likes of John Lennon and Neil Young, the protest song still survives in a myriad of forms and styles-but at times feels cliché and flat. Then The Polyphonic Spree rolls in on a Technicolor M1 Abrams packed with modernized flower-power that squash any doubts you had about the life-force of beautiful dissent.

The Fragile Army title was conceived by Thumbsucker director Mike Mills, while the Spree's dynamic frontman, Tim DeLaughter, scored the film in Berlin. Principle songwriters, Julie Doyle and DeLaughter, felt the name summed up the band's pulse and ran headlong with it, surpassing the group's 2004 release, Together We're Heavy.

The disc should come with a label forewarning first-time listeners of the mind-melting, psych-choral arrangements awaiting them inside. Tagged as "Sections," picking up with 21 where the previous effort left off, each of these 11 sonic arrangements dovetails precisely with the next, supporting their utopian message of understanding and peace with rambunctious pop orchestration.

"Running Away" jumpstarts the album, and the juice never lets up throughout. The band summons delicate, fluttering instrumentation on "We Crawl," and the subtle looping and pronounced bass on "Light to Follow" urges onward and upward. The title track starts with somber keys and vocals and contains a message for the powers-that-be that won't sit well with red-staters. But honestly, the drama of the number is superb...they should listen anyway.

The Polyphonic Spree dropped the robes for the black fatigues adorned with symbols of peace, and are marching to a beat that is universal, positive and packs a forceful punch of rock and pop.

The Avett Brothers have never been afraid to sew their hearts on their sleeve. Among the many labels that have been placed on the Concord, N.C.-based trio over the years, there has been one that has always ringed clear: honest. On their sixth album, Emotionalism, integrity is once again the pervading theme. In an age they say "where playing it cool is the way to be," the Avett Brothers lay their thoughts and beliefs on the table for all to examine, hoping that others will do the same.Label: RAMSEUR RECORDS
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Avett Brothers have never been afraid to sew their hearts on their sleeve. Among the many labels that have been placed on the Concord, N.C.-based trio over the years, there has been one that has always ringed clear: honest. On their sixth album, Emotionalism, integrity is once again the pervading theme. In an age they say "where playing it cool is the way to be," the Avett Brothers lay their thoughts and beliefs on the table for all to examine, hoping that others will do the same.

This is a band created from the urge to try something new, when Scott and Seth Avett decided to unplug from their hardcore band Nemo and start the eclectically acoustic row they now hoe. So it's no surprise that they-along with bassist Bob Crawford-utilize a fresh bag of tricks on Emotionalism. Listening to the pop-friendly production of opener "Die Die Die," one senses that the Avetts have given a shave and a haircut to their normally rough-hewn sound. It's as big of a risk as the lyrical material, but dang if it doesn't work. On "Shame," a song that finds the brothers lamenting over the loss of a girl due to adolescent confidence, light organ compliments one of the cleanest and best Avett melodies to date. "Will You Return" begins as an insecure Mignonette-esque banjo and guitar shuffle, then rides a bubbly, orchestral interlude into a passionate, drum-backed finish. Four Thieves Gone contributor Paleface adds bluesy harmonica and his Marlboro-tattered rasp to "Go to Sleep," a reassuring barroom sing-a-long that also incorporates keys, fiddle, cello and drums.

It's not all upbeat production. Such as on the timeless affirmation of love "All My Mistakes," the Avetts shift on a few numbers from the back porch to the parlor, allowing solemn polish and stunning lyrics to pull the heartstrings of the listeners. After Emotionalism, honest is going to have to get used to the company of another label: brilliant.

Suitcase of Songs

Probably half of them were written years ago. The oldest one was written around ‘73 and the most recent one was probably last year. "Fake" was written in the last five years. "Love Like Water" is definitely one of the newest ones. I didn't even play for a lot of years. I was taking care of a lot of things, but I had this little brown suitcase that was my mother's and had a lot of these lyrics tucked away in there. From time to time I'd pull them out. Some of them were written as songs and some of them were written as poems. Like "Key to Love" was just a poem at first, and I wrote that around '73 or ‘74 when I was living in my tee pee. But these lyrics really stayed with me.

Suitcase of Songs

Probably half of them were written years ago. The oldest one was written around ‘73 and the most recent one was probably last year. "Fake" was written in the last five years. "Love Like Water" is definitely one of the newest ones. I didn't even play for a lot of years. I was taking care of a lot of things, but I had this little brown suitcase that was my mother's and had a lot of these lyrics tucked away in there. From time to time I'd pull them out. Some of them were written as songs and some of them were written as poems. Like "Key to Love" was just a poem at first, and I wrote that around '73 or ‘74 when I was living in my tee pee. But these lyrics really stayed with me.

Poetry to Lyrics

I would write poetry and all kinds of other creative writing and stream-of-consciousness. It's such a great way to express yourself.

The Road

Well, ["The White Line and the Sun"] is the oldest song on the record. I wrote that after I'd done a big, cross-country hitchhiking trip. There is a mystery about the road and it's a place where your mind can wander. Things are passing by you, but you're sitting still. I think it's one of those recurring themes. I think it's a really safe place.

Motion Fuels Expression

When you're home or you're working, your mind just isn't allowed to just roll on like it does when you're watching the scenery go by. You're hurdling through space but you're not really moving. I wrote a song called "Sink or Swim" that's not on this record but it's on Neil's [husband Neil Young] website. That's one that I wrote on one of our many trips across the country by air last year. It's that dreaminess, that ability to just get dreamy while you're looking out the window and you see something...and it makes you think of something else, and all of a sudden the words are just flowing out of you.

Old Song, New Interpretation

I never have heard Jimmy Buffett's version of ["When the Wildlife Betrays Me"], even though he is one of the writers on it. Will [Jennings, co-writer] sent the song to my producer, Elliot Maser, as something I might consider doing...and I loved it. I'm kind of glad I didn't hear it so I could just make it up [laughs]. I can't remember if I saw it on paper and just figured out a tempo or what [laughs].

Elvis & The Jordaniares

I can't say that he influenced me musically; I was a little young for Elvis. I knew who he was, but what's really cool is that The Jordanaires sing background on "I'm Not Through Loving You Yet," and I mean, that was the sound behind Elvis. So when we first got that song, one of the guys from Nashville who was working with us in the studio-named Rob Clark, who was a huge Elvis fan-said, "Oh man, I hear the Jordanaires on that." We went back to Nashville to mix it, and we were listening to it with Chad Haley, who did all the engineering on the record. He was like, "Man, I hear the Jordanaires on that." So I decided we'd better call the Jordanaires [laughs]. They were in the phone book, which blew my mind. They were magnificent, and it was such an honor to have them sing on my record.

My Faves

One of my favorite songwriters on the planet is Lucinda Williams. I just think she goes so deep. She's amazing. I tried one of her songs that I didn't put out on this record, but it's in the wings, and maybe it will come out on the next one. It's called "Side of the Road." I love Willie Nelson. He's an amazing songwriter. Some of these songs people have done, like Patsy Cline singing "Crazy"...you'd always think that she wrote that, but it's like, "Wow, Willie wrote that, too?" JJ Cale is another one that I love. I wanted to try one of his songs on this record, and that song "Magnolia"...that just kills me. That song's so good

Young's self-titled new album was released June 12 on Warner Bros. and is available online and at retail locations.

Label: RHINO
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars 

When Peter Gabriel left Genesis in 1975, the four remaining members reportedly auditioned hundreds of singers to replace him. They eventually settled on their drummer, Phil Collins. It was a smart move, one that would eventually catapult them from artsy-fartsy prog heroes to worldwide pop superstars.

The 12-disc Genesis: 1976-1981 chronicles this evolution, gathering the first five albums the band released once Collins stepped to the mic. It's arguably their finest period. It's certainly their most listenable one. (The box also includes a disc of B-sides, EP tracks, and other leftover songs from the period. The surround mix DVDs attached to each album are noteworthy for their mostly pre-MTV videos and concert clips.) Before 1976's Trick of the Tail, Genesis was making head-aching concept albums featuring 25-minute suites about flowers. Tail still has a story at its center-something about a hunter and his quest for a forest-dwelling troll...or something like that-but it also has songs, something the Gabriel-era Genesis never quite grasped. "Squonk" and "Ripples" are powered by melodies rather than solos (although there are plenty of those too). Wind & Wuthering includes "Your Own Special Way," a radio-ready ballad that signaled things to come.

By 1978's And Then There Were Three, guitarist Steve Hackett was gone, leaving Genesis a trio. Duke, from 1980, was their last thematically tied album. A year later, Abacab included the first mega-hit single ("No Reply at All") and virtually zero solos. Multi-platinum sales, and cheesy tunes about unauthorized immigrants, were on the horizon.

"Nobody else in the whole world knows when Mac's gonna open the Radio Café, but we do-and we tell each other," Todd Snider says in "From a Rooftop," his spoken-word tribute to East Nashville. Label: RED PARLOR
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

"Nobody else in the whole world knows when Mac's gonna open the Radio Café, but we do-and we tell each other," Todd Snider says in "From a Rooftop," his spoken-word tribute to East Nashville. "We stand around down there and smoke during Dave Olney's break." The song implies what those new to town need to know; Olney's the kind of artist that other songwriters gather around to offer their attention and study closely.

The Rhode Island native's long been heralded as a sharp, literate songwriter, and One Tough Town shows again why peers revere him and many-from Linda Ronstadt to Del McCoury-have recorded his songs. Few are capable of spinning such colorful and multi-layered yarns with so little excess fat. On this fine new release, Olney spans the gamut from obstreperous glee ("Panama City," "Sweet Potato") to naked terror ("See How the Mighty Have Fallen," Townes Van Zandt's "Snake Song").

He hits the mark consistently throughout the album, but perhaps most gloriously on that borrowed track. Covering a Van Zandt tune, of course, is much like playing a Beatles classic. The best are so lyrically rich and musically immaculate that even the most hapless hack can't make them sound bad. That said, many are nearly impossible to improve upon.

That's what makes Olney's profoundly gnarled reading of Van Zandt's "Snake Song" so remarkable. It doesn't merely reenergize the song; it razes emotional scars that were only sideways glances in the original. Cue it up loud, but make sure there's a hand nearby to hold onto. When Olney sings "There ain't no mercy in my smiling/only fangs and sweet beguiling," stereo speakers dampen with blood.