I will admit that these two singer/songwriter “cowboys” came along in the midst of my “oldie, country, pop, early rock era”! I was rather indecisive concerning just what song/music category I would call FAVORITE! However, both had “hits” I enjoyed, and both will be missed in not only the Country music scene but also in the total music experience.
BILLY JOE SHAVER was born in nearby Corsicana in 1939, moved to Waco around 1951 to be raised by his “near-poverty” Grandma, served in the Navy, and journeyed on to became a songwriter/singer, helping to move the “outlaw country movement” to a much higher level of recognition and respect.
Around the year of 1973, he gained a high level of widespread attention as he contributed many songs to a Waylon Jennings album called Honky Tonk Heroes. And, he also contributed to the songs of Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan!
But all was never a “bed of roses” for Shaver, who battled addictions to drugs and alcohol, lost a wife to cancer and a son to a drug overdose, suffered a nearfatal heart attack, fell off a roof while working as a carpenter, and cut off parts of two fingers while working in a sawmill!
1971 saw the Shaver fortunes start moving up a little quicker, as he met Waylon Jennings while performing at a Willie Nelson picnic, which led to many other song-writing opportunities for many other country “stars.”
He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004 and into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006—and his other awards are too many to name.
If for nothing else, remember Billy Joe Shaver for his iconic lyrics. “I’m just an old chunk of coal, but I’m gonna be a diamond some day!” “The devil made me do it the first time. The second time I done it on my own!” “I don’t start fights; I finish fights; That’s the way I’ll always be.” “I’m a ‘wacko’ from Waco; you best not mess with me!”
He once told a critic that songwriting had kept him sane, and Bugs Henderson, a great BLUES singer, once summed up what many felt about this man: “I wish I could write like Billy Joe.” Henderson used this line in one of his songs and its title!
JERRY JEFF WALKER— “Listen to Jerry Jeff, because he can make you feel good in that Texas sort of way; because he can make us friendly, as we Texans ought to be!” These words by Joshua J. Whifield, Pastoral Administrator for St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas, sum up the feelings many, many folks have for Jerry Jeff Walker, who, in many eyes and ears, was the poet/muse for our generation—even though he often opened for other “Stars,” rather than being the headliner!
In 1942, this man was born in New York and sported the name of Ronald Clyde Crosby. Luckily for him (in my opinion) he moved from up north and landed in Austin, Texas, in the 1970s and helped start and move along the “Outlaw Country Scene,” right up there with Willie Nelson!
Before this time, he was a founding member of a band, called “Circus Maximus.” At this time he might have been considered more of a “folk” singer than an outlaw!
He wrote an “everybody knows this one” song, “Mr. BoJangles,” after he met and observed a man in the “drunk jail,” who “danced across the cell.”
In 1973, Walker had a hit with the Lost Gonzo Band, at least regionally, making an album called, “Viva Terlingua,” but strangely, it was recorded in Luckenbach of the HILL COUNTRY! Among other songs, it contained “Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother” and “Desperados Waiting for a Train.”
Through the years, he made and released tens of albums and became a giant in the field; in the late 1980s, he formed an independent label and released albums under the name of TRIED AND TRUE.
Note two more hits: “Got Lucky Last Night” and “I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight.”
2017 brought a diagnosis of throat cancer and treatments of radiation and chemotherapy—and led him tell his fans that he no longer “took his singing voice for granted.”
After treatments ended, he had a new vigor for a short while and finished an album and played several shows, but then things “went downhill,” leaving this artist unable to speak!
And now, this singer/ writer/entertainer/poet has moved on to the next life, leaving us to remember the COSMIC COWBOY, who was smart enough or lucky enough to move to Austin and “hob nob” with Willie, Waylon, Michel Martin, and Guy in Luckenbach!
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