Greatest Hits
Johnny Cash once called him "my favorite songwriter," and Waylon Jennings recorded nearly an entire album (Honky Tonk Heroes) of his material in 1973--lots of folks insist that was the first true "outlaw" record. Billy Joe Shaver, whose "Old Chunk of Coal," "Georgia on a Fast Train," and "Old Five and Dimers" rank as standards of Texas singer-songwriter lore, is closer to his 70th birthday than his 60th, but he still burns it down on stage, and he still lives the soulful, close-to-the-bone life of his impoverished, raggedy-ass youth. These days, it would be easy for the five-time Grammy nominee to lean on his woeful personal story--growing up picking cotton and dropping out of school in the eighth grade, then losing his wife, mother, and guitarist son, Eddy, in a matter of months at the turn of the millennium. Instead, he continues to challenge himself in his writing. This collection of his best-loved songs (it's erroneous to call them "hits") contains a driving live rendition of "Georgia" and two new offerings (the remarkable love song "Light a Candle for Me" and the tongue-in-cheek "Melody") as well as some lubricated on-stage preaching and storytelling. (It also reprises his unfortunate duet with Big & Rich on "Live Forever"... but let's pretend that never happened.) Shaver's singing remains an acquired taste, rivaling a rusty barn-door latch rattling in the wind. Yet in the age of Pro-Tooled prettiness, authenticity never sounded more welcome.--Alanna Nash