Five years ago, Billy Joe Shaver’s life was marked by tragedy, death and his own failing health. As he prepares to unleash his first new studio album in three years, The Real Deal (Compadre Records) on September 20, his life has turned around.
He’s recently been featured on CBS’s “60 Minutes II” with Dan Rather and NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross. He is scheduled to appear as a featured performer on an upcoming “CMT Outlaws” special and will perform the national anthem at the August 15 “Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen” Nextel Cup NASCAR race in Watkins Glen, New York. Indeed it seems like he’s experienced everything a musician canexcept that he has never self-produced an album.
So
Shaver hunkered down in a Pedernales, Texas studio to record 14 out of 16 new tracks for the forthcoming album. He explains, “It was great to be able to sing the way I want to sing. I could set up the arrangements how I wanted rather than having to fit someone else’s.”
He was also joined by old and new friends including the country superstar duo Big & Rich, who co-produced their duet with Shaver on his inspirational masterpiece “Live Forever.” According to Big Kenny from the duo, “Shaver is a classic poet and a songsmith... the kind of person you can listen to for hours, with a spirit and soul that grabs your attention.” The duet marks the first time the double platinum duo has recorded an outside song.
Others who joined Shaver included Nancy Griffith (who sang on the song “Valentine”), Kimmie Rhodes (“West Texas Waltz”), Flaco Jimenez (“Feliz Navidad”) and Kevin Fowler (“Slim Chance and the Can’t Hardly Playboys”). The album also contains Shaver’s fervent reminder about the power of persistence, “Try and Try Again.”
The Real Deal follows the well-received Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver - Live (Compadre), which featured such friends as Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Guy Clark, Todd Snider, Cory Morrow, Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis, among others.
Shaver is truly one of the most respected living figures in American music today. Johnny Cash called him “my favorite songwriter.” (He has written for Cash as well as Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, The Allman Brothers and Bobby Bare.) The Washington Post noted that “when the country outlaws were collecting their holy writings, Billy Joe Shaver was carving out Exodus.”
Shaver has been tapped to join Merle Haggard, Toby Keith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Shelby Lynne and more for CMT's highly anticipated “CMT Outlaws” concert special, reaching 100 million homes. He will be a featured writer at the 2005 Texas Book Festival in Austin this October promoting his autobiography Honky Tonk Hero (University of Texas Press). He is also a “spiritual advisor” to the Texas gubernatorial campaign of longtime friend Kinky Friedman. Last year he was named Texas State Musician by the Texas Commission on the Arts, and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.
Shaver will tour the U.S. (as well as every town in Texas) from the summer months well into the fall.
