Billy Joe Shaver
The Story Teller
Live at the Bluebird 1992
Sugar Hill Records
visit Billy Joe's website
and also on myspace
also available on amazon
This is one of those evenings when you just kick yourself because you weren’t there (even though you weren’t in that town at that time), for the music, the banter, and the intimacy of it all. This is just Billy Joe singing, telling the stories behind the songs and playing acoustic guitar, with his son Eddy Shaver, and his amazing lead work on acoustic guitar, and Keith Christopher on acoustic guitar and acoustic bass; with Billy Joe’s ex-wife and bunch of friends in the audience. It is a close venue and sitting in the second row was Todd Snyder, good thing because Todd was coerced into writing the liner notes in his inimitable style. The great thing about this is you get the stories behind some of the songs as told by this master storyteller in a way particular to him. There is a raw passion that pervades everything that this man does, from his songs to his stories. He builds them slowly and just when you thing you’ve got it there is another line that you should have seen coming, and it just seals the deal. Listen to his
fantastic “Old Chuck of Coal,” and well for the few of you that don’t know the song just give this gem a listen and feel the honest intensity that comes through in his lyrics.
There is a shearing, burning passion in this man that strips his soul naked on the stage so that his demons can rest, so he can go on with life, I don’t know I’m not sure why, but the pain that went into the song comes through and he seems to radiate a love that is on a cutting edge. There is a quality here that lets you know that the songs are the absolute god honest truth, and even if they aren’t they sure seem like they are. They are his truth and he is kind enough to share it with us. As he says in “You Asked Me To” “…simple love is simple truth.” Thank you Billy Joe Shaver.