Music

At 75, Billy Joe Shaver keeps on singin' the blues

Billy Joe Shaver
Billy Joe Shaver

Billy Joe Shaver could easily qualify to sing the blues, but fans know him for his country sound, which rocks out just enough to perhaps confuse some of his country fans.

As for his blues qualifications, the list starts with his loss of parts of four fingers while on the job at a sawmill as a young man, and the deaths -- all within a year -- of his mother, first wife and son, who was also the electric guitarist in Shaver's band.

Billy Joe Shaver

Opening acts: The Wildflowers (Amy Garland, Bonnie Montgomery, Mandy McBryde), Kevin Kerby

9 p.m. today, White Water Tavern, West Seventh and Thayer streets, Little Rock

Admission: $30

(501) 375-8400

whitewatertavern.com

And there was a legal mess when Shaver got into a dispute at a Texas bar and shot another patron. There were charges and a trial, but the jury saw things Shaver's way and he got a new song out of the situation: "Wacko From Waco."

To top it all off, Shaver isn't getting any younger. But he's fine with celebrating the fact that he's a survivor, and has even named his latest album Long in the Tooth, after being told by a friend that he, Shaver, who turned 75 in August, was suffering from that imaginary dental malady.

"I think this may be my best album yet," Shaver says. "It's my first album of new songs in six years, and I have to give some credit to Todd Snider, who encouraged me to go to Nashville [Tenn.] and see what I could come up with. And I'm really proud of the results."

He compares his pride with past accomplishments, such as writing most of the songs on Waylon Jennings' album Honky Tonk Heroes, and for three songs that have become synonymous with Shaver's life and times: "I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train" in 1973, "You Asked Me To" in 1978 and "Live Forever" in 1993.

Shaver wrote three of the new songs; on the remaining seven songs, he enlisted co-writers Gary Nicholson and Ray Kennedy, who also co-produced the album. Musical guests abound: Willie Nelson duets with Shaver on the album's opening cut, "Hard to Be an Outlaw," on which the two aging Texans sing, "It's hard to be an outlaw who isn't wanted any more." Leon Russell plays piano on "Last Call for Alcohol" and Tony Joe White plays electric guitar and sings on the title cut.

Perryville native Shawn Camp sings backing vocals on two songs. Nashville veterans Pig Robbins and Stuart Duncan are featured, as is Willie Nelson band mate Mickey Raphael, who plays harmonica or Jew's harp on four songs.

For touring purposes, Shaver brings a drummer, bassist and lead guitarist. He also plays "a little bit," but notes that his shoulder is giving him trouble and needs replacing.

"Just about everyone my age, something is wrong," he says with a laugh. "I've got a new knee now, my right one, and it hasn't been in long enough to heal to be pain-free."

And as for singing the blues, some would say Shaver could qualify just for his past attempts to achieve marital bliss. He has been married six times, but to only two women, as in three times each. The second ex-wife still lives with him, but in a platonic arrangement, he adds. One of those marriages took place in the state Capitol, presided over by one of Shaver's Arkansas fans, former state legislator Robert Moore, who was Speaker of the House at the time.

"My divorces just keep not workin' out," Shaver says with a laugh. "So my ex-wife Wanda just still lives here in my ol' house in Waco and keeps the place up when I'm gone."

Weekend on 09/18/2014

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