Billy Joe Shaver
Wikimp3 information about the music of Billy Joe Shaver. On our website we have 30 albums and 57 collections of artist Billy Joe Shaver. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that Billy Joe Shaver represents Country genres.
Biography
[Edit]Billy Joe Shaver never became a household name, but his songs — including "Good Christian Soldier," "Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me," and "I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train" — became country standards during the '70s and his reputation among musicians and critics didn't diminish in the ensuing decades. One of the best synopses of Shaver's upbringing is his own song "I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train." When he sings, "My grandma's old-age pension is the reason that I'm standing here today," he ain't kidding. The "good Christian raising" and "eighth grade education" — not to mention being abandoned by his parents shortly after being born, working on his uncles' farms instead of going to high school, and losing part of his fingers during a job at a sawmill — are all part of his life story. "I got all my country learning," he sings, "picking cotton, raising hell, and bailing hay."
Shaver did a quick turn in the Navy and worked a series of nowhere jobs (including the one in the sawmill) before trying his luck in Nashville. After several futile trips between Texas and Tennessee, he appeared one day in 1968 in Bobby Bare's Nashville office, where he convinced Bare to listen to him play. Bare ended up giving him a writing job. Shaver recorded one song for Mercury, "Chicken on the Ground," which went nowhere, but soon his songs began to see the light of day thanks to Kris Kristofferson ("Good Christian Soldier"), Tom T. Hall ("Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me"), Bare ("Ride Me Down Easy"), and later, the Allman Brothers ("Sweet Mama") and Elvis Presley ("You Asked Me To"). Shaver's real breakthrough, though, came in 1973 when Waylon Jennings recorded an album composed almost entirely of Shaver's songs, Honky Tonk Heroes — largely considered the first true "outlaw" album.
Shaver's debut album was Old Five & Dimers Like Me, produced by Kristofferson and released by Monument (Kristofferson's label) in 1973. Along with the title track, it contained the now-classic Shaver songs "Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me" and the aforementioned "Georgia on a Fast Train." Shaver switched to MGM a year later, but no album materialized. "Raising hell" was, as he had sung, part of his lifestyle at the time, and it kept him out of sight for a couple years. In 1976, Shaver resurfaced with When I Get My Wings on Capricorn, and followed it up a year later with Gypsy Boy. In 1978, Johnny Cash recorded "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Some Day)," a song Shaver wrote just after he chose to give up drugs and booze and turned to God for help. Religious references do crop up his songs (including "Chunk of Coal"), but they never dominate the emotions or get in the way of the earthy rhythms and melodies.
Shaver switched labels again, this time to Columbia, in 1980, and recorded three more albums during the next decade: I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal, Billy Joe Shaver, and Salt of the Earth. The latter was produced by Shaver with his son, Eddy, who played on many Billy Joe records and also toured in Dwight Yoakam's band in the '80s. After a few more years out of the spotlight, Billy Joe returned once again in 1993, this time recording under the name Shaver. Tramp on Your Street, released on Zoo/Praxis, featured Eddy on lead guitar and Billy Joe's own raspy but lovable voice, and coming out during a time when hunky hat acts where the new flavor in Nashville, it was quickly recognized as one of the strongest and hardest country records to hit the shelves in many years.
Shaver toured regularly over the next couple of years and recorded a live album for Zoo, Unshaven, in 1995, but was dropped by the label a year later. Victory followed on the New West label in 1998, with Electric Shaver appearing a year later. The rock-oriented Earth Rolls On appeared in spring 2001. His next four albums, all released on the Compadre label, were Freedom's Child (2002); the emotional Billy and the Kid, which saw Shaver singing songs written by son Eddy, who had died of a heroin overdose on New Year's Eve in 2000 (2004); Real Deal (2005); and Everybody's Brother (2007). The year 2007 also saw the release of Storyteller, a live set recorded in 1992, on Sugar Hill Records. Ever the road warrior, Shaver recorded a gig in September of 2011, and released it as the CD/DVD package Live at Billy Bob's Texas in July 2012. Long in the Tooth, released in 2014 in Shaver's 75th year, featured ten new original songs.
Title: Billy Joe Shaver: Greatest Hits
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Rock, Country, Outlaw Country
Title: Storyteller (Live at the Bluebird 1992)
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Rock, Country, Outlaw Country, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Live At Billy Bob's Texas
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Rock, Country, Outlaw Country, Songwriter/Lyricist, Contemporary Folk
Title: Old Five and Dimers Like Me
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Rock, Country, Outlaw Country, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Salt of the Earth
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Rock, Country, Outlaw Country, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Live At Billy Bob's Texas (Deluxe Edition)
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Rock, Country, Outlaw Country, Songwriter/Lyricist, Contemporary Folk
Title: The Complete Columbia Recordings ('81-'87)
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Rock, Country, Outlaw Country
Title: Long in the Tooth
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Rock, Country, Outlaw Country, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Get Thee Behind Me Satan - Single
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Rock, Country, Outlaw Country, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Georgia On A Fast Train - Live At The Texas Music Cafe
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Blues, World Music, Country, Folk
Title: I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal...But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday
Artist: Billy Joe Shaver
Genre: Country, Outlaw Country
Collections
Title: Live from Austin, TX: Outlaw Country
Genre: Country
Title: Great Gentlemen Sing Folk and Roots
Genre:
Title: Golden Alternative Country
Genre: Country
Title: Country Road Songs
Genre: Country
Title: Best Acoustic Country
Genre: Country
Title: Classic Country Essentials: American Girls
Genre: Country
Title: Classic Country: Big Hits
Genre: Country
Title: American Roots Singers and Songs
Genre: Country
Title: Hits of Alternative Country
Genre: Country
Title: Ralph Emery's Country Legends Series: Volume 1
Genre: Country
Title: Poet - A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt
Genre: Pop, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Outlaw Country
Title: Ride That Train
Genre: Country
Title: Discover Acoustic Country
Genre: Country
Title: Classic Country from a Kentucky Speakeasy
Genre: Country
Title: Hot Tracks: Train Super Hits
Genre: Country
Title: Cowboys Unite
Genre: Country
Title: Honky Tonk, Vol. 1
Genre: Country
Title: The Greatest American Classic Country
Genre: Country
Title: Cowboys Unite, Vol. 2
Genre: Country
Title: Country: Travelin' Songs
Genre: Blues
Title: Country Guitar Gems
Genre: Country
Title: Got the Honky Tonk Blues
Genre: Country
Title: Classic Country For the Workplace
Genre: Country
Title: Tulare Dust - A Songwriters' Tribute to Merle Haggard
Genre: Country
Title: Brewed In Texas, Vol. 2
Genre: Country
Title: Texas Outlaws
Genre: Country
Title: Texans Live from Mountain Stage
Genre: Country
Title: Essential Country Classsic: 1950's and 60's
Genre: Country
Title: The Darkest Classic Country
Genre: Country
Title: Six Strings Twanging: Country Guitar and Dobro
Genre: Country
Title: Country Music Hall of Fame
Genre: Country
Title: Essential Country - Road Trip
Genre: Country
Title: Discover Louisiana Country
Genre: Country
Title: Best Of The Little Dixie Honky Tonks
Genre: Alternative
Title: Bluegrass On the Road
Genre: Country
Title: Hits of Outlaw Country
Genre: Country
Title: Country Music USA
Genre: Country, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Rambling Fever: Country Music Hits the Road
Genre: Country
Title: The Best Of Travelin' Texas
Genre: Country
Title: Uncut: Ramble On
Genre: Indie Pop, Indie Rock, World Music, Folk
Title: Texans: Live From Mountain Stage
Genre: Blues
Title: The Oxford American Southern Music Issue 2014
Genre: Blues, World Music, Country, Folk
Title: Oxford American: Southern Sampler 1999
Genre: Soul, Blues, Jazz, Rock, World Music, Country, Theatre/Soundtrack, Folk
Title: Poet: A Tribute To Townes Van Zandt
Genre: World Music, Country, Folk
Title: The People's Record (CD2)
Genre: Soul, Rock, World Music, Pop, Folk
Title: Outlaw Country Essentials (CD1)
Genre: Country
Title: Roadhouse Essentials 2021 (CD1)
Genre: Blues, Rock, World Music, Country, Funk, Psychedelic, Indie, Classical, Folk
Title: Roadhouse Essentials (CD1)
Featuring albums
Title: A Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver - Live
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Country, Alternative Country
Title: Texans Live from Mountain Stage
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Blues, Country, Alternative Country
Title: Wild Horses (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Livemusiken Fran Jills Veranda Nashville Sasong 2
Artist: Jill Johnson
Genre: Tech House, Hip Hop/R&B, Country, Pop, Vocal & Symphonic