Tramp on Your Street
Billy Joe Shaver has never had a hit of his own, but he's written plenty of hits for others (John Anderson's "Old Chunk of Coal," Tom T. Hall's "Old Five and Dimers," Bobby Bare's "Ride Me Down Easy"), and he's credited for launching the "Outlaw Country" movement by writing every song but one on Waylon Jennings's 1973 album,Honky Tonk Heroes. Shaver's own albums, though, are highly prized among critics and his fellow musicians, and both those camps celebrated the release of only his second album in 11 years, 1996'sTramp on Your Street. Waylon Jennings helps out his old pal on the autobiographical "Heart of Texas" and on "Oklahoma Wind," which manages to evoke the tragedy of the American Indian without getting all sentimental. Brother Phelps adds hillbilly harmonies to two songs. Best of all is the title song, a true story about a 10-year-old Billy Joe Shaver walking 10 miles to hear Hank Williams sing at the Wonder Bread bakery in Corsicana, Texas. The song blossoms, however, into a universal anthem about the importance of culture to the poorest and most desperate among us.--Geoffrey Himes