Slim Chance and the Can?t Hardly Playboys (with Kevin Fowler)
I Changed My Mind
Sweet Melody
Valentine (with Nanci Griffith)
You Ought to be with Me When I?m Alone
Down the Road by the Way
West Texas Waltz (with Kimmie Rhodes)
The Real Deal
If the Trailer?s A Rockin? Don?t Come Knockin?
Try and Try Again
Aunt Jessie?s Chicken Ranch
It seems like Billy Joe Shaver's experienced everything a musician can--except that he has never self-produced an album. So Shaver hunkered down in a Pedernales, Texas, studio to record 14 out of 16 new tracks for The Real... more » Deal. He explains, "It was great to be able to sing the way I want to sing. I could set up the arrangements how I wanted rather than having to fit someone else's." He was also joined by old and new friends, including the country superstar duo Big & Rich, who co-produced their duet with Shaver on his inspirational masterpiece "Live Forever." According to Big Kenny from the duo, "Shaver is a classic poet and a songsmith...the kind of person you can listen to for hours, with a spirit and soul that grabs your attention." The duet marks the first time the double platinum duo has recorded an outside song. Others who joined Shaver included Nancy Griffith (who sang on the song "Valentine"), Kimmie Rhodes ("West Texas Waltz"), Flaco Jimenez ("Feliz Navidad"), and Kevin Fowler ("Slim Chance and the Can't Hardly Playboys"). The album also contains Shaver's fervent reminder about the power of persistence, "Try and Try Again."The Real Deal follows the well-received Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver: Live, which featured such friends as Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Guy Clark, Todd Snider, Cory Morrow, Bruce Robison, and Kelly Willis, among others. Shaver is truly one of the most respected living figures in American music today. Johnny Cash called him "my favorite songwriter." (He has written for Cash as well as Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, the Allman Brothers, and Bobby Bare.) The Washington Post noted that "when the country outlaws were collecting their holy writings, Billy Joe Shaver was carving out Exodus."« less
It seems like Billy Joe Shaver's experienced everything a musician can--except that he has never self-produced an album. So Shaver hunkered down in a Pedernales, Texas, studio to record 14 out of 16 new tracks for The Real Deal. He explains, "It was great to be able to sing the way I want to sing. I could set up the arrangements how I wanted rather than having to fit someone else's." He was also joined by old and new friends, including the country superstar duo Big & Rich, who co-produced their duet with Shaver on his inspirational masterpiece "Live Forever." According to Big Kenny from the duo, "Shaver is a classic poet and a songsmith...the kind of person you can listen to for hours, with a spirit and soul that grabs your attention." The duet marks the first time the double platinum duo has recorded an outside song. Others who joined Shaver included Nancy Griffith (who sang on the song "Valentine"), Kimmie Rhodes ("West Texas Waltz"), Flaco Jimenez ("Feliz Navidad"), and Kevin Fowler ("Slim Chance and the Can't Hardly Playboys"). The album also contains Shaver's fervent reminder about the power of persistence, "Try and Try Again."The Real Deal follows the well-received Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver: Live, which featured such friends as Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Guy Clark, Todd Snider, Cory Morrow, Bruce Robison, and Kelly Willis, among others. Shaver is truly one of the most respected living figures in American music today. Johnny Cash called him "my favorite songwriter." (He has written for Cash as well as Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, the Allman Brothers, and Bobby Bare.) The Washington Post noted that "when the country outlaws were collecting their holy writings, Billy Joe Shaver was carving out Exodus."
"This is an exquisite album. The flavor blossoms with every spin. A couple of the songs are funny, the way Texas songwriters write funny songs. A couple are sad. They just grow the more you listen.
Each new Billy Joe Shaver album is a surprise in many ways. How does he maintain such longevity? Where does he find this seemingly bottomless well of creativity? How can he make all these old things seem new again? The huge suprise to me in this, his first self-produced album, is the frank, unapologetic retro sound. This is the music I grew up hearing on my dad's old 78's. Steel guitar, heartbreak, grownup love, and Jesus.
And this is a mellow album. Even "Slim Chance" and "If the Trailer's Rockin", songs in which Billy is apparantly "channelling Roger Miller" (as Robert Ealr Keen once observed) are distinctly kind songs.
What is not surprising, for anyone who knows his work, is the sincerity and profound beauty of most of the songs. "Profound" is the correct word. When Billy asks "Will you be my Valentine...will you let our hearts entwine?", you know he's talking about marrying the same woman three times in an effort to get it right in the end. You know he's referring to our lives, to making a go of it with that less than perfect man who held your heart while your dad died, to loving that kid who just can't seem to graduate from rehab, to loving a God who seems to keep heaping on the trials along with the blessings.
You gotta stand in awe of Billy Joe Shaver. He is as he sings. Pure and without pretense. And beautiful."
Another masterpiece
Tim Hanson | Florida | 10/05/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I would have given it more stars if I could. A true artist, it makes you feel like the songs are being sung directly to you, music like this is the best. Real Country, not just bad rock and roll."
Billy Joe Shaver IS the Real Deal - No Doubt!
Polly | United States | 11/27/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I saw first Billy Joe Shaver on the CMT Outlaw show hosted by Merle Haggard and Toby Keith in early November. I heard Mr. Shaver sing two songs, both of which are on this wonderful CD. I was spellbound knowing I was hearing the raw truth especially after listening to him tell what happened to his family. I went out the next day and bought this great CD. I listen to Billy Joe Shaver every day. I keep hitting "repeat" button on "Try Try Again" and "I'm Going to Live Forever". I truly can't get enough of his songs now that I have discovered him."
Classic Shaver
John L. Port | Newport, Oregon | 10/26/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is classic Shaver material. Poetic lyrics, great storytelling and his voice getting better with age."
The real deal, and nothing less!
DanD | 12/21/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"For decades, Billy Joe Shaver has been crafting some of the most unique country songs ever. Remember Waylon Jennnings' HONKY TONK HEROES album? Remember all those great outlaw songs--songs of honesty, redemption, and being true to yourself? That's Billy Joe Shaver. THE REAL DEAL proves that Shaver's talent as a songwriter is still top-notch. His singing? Not the best ever, no--but then, if you are buying this album, you don't care. Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan can't sing worth a hoot, either. Look where they are today.
This is an album that runs the gammut of topics and themes. There are touching, powerful songs of redemption alongside laugh-out-loud hilarious diddies. There're genuinely romantic ballads, and even an ode to the Wild West (and, oddly enough, Sophocles's "Oedipus"). If you want to sum up this album, though, you can't do any better than Shaver himself does in the title track. "You're rich and you're good looking and outstanding in your field, but I'm the real deal...I got one foot in the grace and the other on a 'nanner peel, but I'm the real deal." True enough. Billy Joe Shaver is all that and more. An American icon--even if his name isn't as reknowned as his other Outlaws he helped make famous--Shaver tells it like it is, because he doesn't know any other way. Thank God for that. This is true, pure, honest country music with heart, soul, and a whole lot more."