Billy Joe Shaver
Friday, 0, , 12:00 am (doors open at 7:00 pm)

Texas's classic country outlaw

$24 advance / $26 door

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Billy Joe ShaverBilly Joe Shaver has never been a household name, but his songs became country standards during the 1970s, and his reputation among musicians and critics has been rising ever since. Johnny Cash called him “my favorite songwriter.” He was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006, he earned a Grammy nomination for his album Everybody’s Brother in 2007, and the Americana Music Association has awarded him their Lifetime Achievement Award in Songwriting. “I’m listenin’ to Billy Joe Shaver and readin’ James Joyce,” Bob Dylan sings in “I Feel A Change Comin’ On,” and Dylan has covered Billy Joe’s song “Old Five and Dimers Like Me.” According to the Washington Post, “when the country outlaws were collecting their holy writings, Billy Joe Shaver was carving out Exodus.”
 
Born in Corsicana, Texas and raised mostly by his grandmother, he got through eighth grade and survived a series of odd jobs. "I got all my country learning," he sings, "picking cotton, raising hell, and baling hay." In Nashville in 1968, he landed a songwriting gig. Kris Kristofferson soon recorded “Good Christian Soldier,” Tom T. Hall recorded “Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me,” Bobby Bare recorded “Ride Me Down Easy,” the Allman Brothers recorded “Sweet Mama” and Elvis Presley recorded “You Asked Me To.” In 1973, Waylon Jennings recorded the album Honky Tonk Heroes, which consisted mostly of Billy Joe’s songs, and Kris Kristofferson produced Billy Joe’s first album. Since then, he’s recorded 23 more, including his latest, Live From Down Under, a collaboration with former Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman. Billy Joe is a songwriter’s songwriter and an outlaw’s outlaw, and tonight he makes his debut at the Freight!


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Photo by Jim McGuire

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