Billy Joe Shaver is a celebrated Texas country music singer and songwriter. Early on he lost two fingers in an accident working at a saw mill but still managed to teach himself to play guitar and start a career as a songwriter in Nashville.
His work came to the attention of Waylon Jennings, who filled most of his album Honky Tonk Heroes with Shaver's songs. Other artists, including Elvis Presley and Kris Kristofferson, began to record Shaver's music and this led to his own record deal.
The 1973 album Old Five And Dimers Like Me is regarded as a classic in the outlaw country genre and is included in this collection along with Shaver’s three Columbia albums Salt Of The Earth, Billy Joe Shaver, and I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal.
Tracks:
CD1
1. Black Rose
2. Old Five And Dimers Like Me
3. L.A. Turnaround
4. Jesus Christ, What A Man
5. Played The Game Too Long
6. I Been To Georgia On A Fast Train
7. Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me
8. Low Down Freedom
9. Jesus Was Our Saviour And Cotton Was…
10. Serious Souls
11. Bottom Dollar
12. Sweet Mama
13. Hard Workin’ Man
14. Manual Labor
15. Hill Country Love Song
16. You Just Can’t Beat Jesus Christ
17. The Devil Made Me Do It The First Time
18. For A While It Lasted
19. Whiteman’s Watermelon
20. Street Walkin’ Woman
21. Good News Blues
CD2
1. Amtrak
2. Bottom Dollar
3. Old Five And Dimers Like Me
4. How Many Hearts Must You Break
5. Oklahoma Wind
6. Ride Me Down Easy
7. Tell Me Virginia
8. Low Down Freedom
9. One Moving Part
10. I Been To Georgia On A Fast Train
11. Fit To Kill And Going Out In Style
12. Blue Texas Waltz
13. Saturday Night
14. Ragged Old Truck
15. I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But…
16. When The World Was Thunderbird
17. (We Are) The Cowboys
18. Mexico
19. It Ain’t Nothing New Babe
20. The Road
Album Review - Record Collector, November 2019
