The Music
"I didn’t think I’d ever do another album lo and behold Bobby Fields called me up and put me with these people with down in Houston, Compadre Records." Billy Joe muses.
Freedom’s Child takes you on a journey that’s as straight forward as a roller coaster ride can be. It’s inevitable that there are many ghosts on this album – you can’t live through the experiences that Billy Joe’s had and not have it affect anything that comes from deep inside of you.
The album is undeniably enhanced by producer R.S. Field’s skills. Able to recognize the power in simplicity, R.S. allows the multi-facets of Billy Joe to come shining through. There's no need to recreate the magic of 1993 because with Billy Joe the magic is naturally there.
"He’s one of a kind. He’s just a trip. He always entertaining, always dramatic, a lot of times hilarious, he’s just a brilliant, brilliant artist and that’s a word you don’t throw around too much these days. He is the guy in his songs that’s the kind of thing I look for in the people I work with. It sounds hollow, but I really am a fan of Billy Joe." says RS "He and Waylon were the first contemporary country artists I had ever listened to. I was hardcore British rave-up bands until about the mid 70’s. My friend Webb Wilder turned me on to Billy Joe’s first album which is still my favorite album of his. It just really connected with me. I think of him as a writer, as a country songwriter and an artist, and I don’t think there’s anybody like him, including the Highwaymen. He just has gift for forging original language that regular people might say."
The first challenge of the project was trimming down 40-50 great Billy Joe Shaver compositions to a single album's worth. RS recalls the process "A lot of them I thought were really great songs, there were a few that we didn’t get to do, that I wanted to do. But just for kind of a balance on the record in terms of peaks and intensities some of them would have cancelled others out. I feel good about the grouping that we ended up going with."
"The thing that struck me about the things he sent me, most of which were just him sitting in his kitchen somewhere just recording into a tape recorder with no accompaniment or anything, what struck me was how great he was singing. How he brought almost a different interpretation, almost like a Bing Crosby or a Louis Armstrong sense. He just put so much emotion and control into what he was doing. I thought that in this situation, sadly not being part of a band anymore or a duo that was going to be the main focus. I was going to bring the arrangements or lack of arrangements to the vocals and make it all work to his dynamic as a singer."
Trying to duplicate Eddy’s musical presence was something R.S. deliberately steered clear from when putting together the studio musicians. "The one thing is I didn’t try to do, I’m not an idiot, is try to replace him. We intentionally avoided going for a sort of rave-up, Stevie Ray kind of magnificence that Eddy was capable of as a soloist, an arranger and a rhythm player."
Pulling the project together in the studio took a sum total of 11 days. "We just did it old school. I pretty much picked the players, intentionally not trying to get the hot super picker studio pro. All of these guys definitely work in the studio I just had a real good feeling about them individually, and except for the rhythm section I don’t think of them had really played together before. They just did a fantastic job. Literally you would have a scene change after about 10 minute conversation of listening, running it down, on the spot casting the songs. The guys were so versatile. They were sympathetic and empathetic to what Billy Joe was trying to do. More so than any other record I’ve done, the majority of the vocals were literally done on the floor on the first take. Very little overdubbing, some we worked on like with a more traditional way where you do several performances and pick the very best, but very few, no more than two or three."
With the admirable skill of letting Billy Joe and his music do what it needed to do, Field's gifts to this album are the lightness of the his touch and the selection and sequencing of the songs. Billy Joe has nothing but high praise for his producer. "Bobby is the best. I love working with him. He and I just click real good. Bobby is the best at picking, he knows me better than I do. He knows how to hang ‘em. He knows how to line those songs up correctly, make it all work. If he was a fellow who had an art gallery he would know exactly where to hang every picture."
R.S. laughs, "You should see my house." before taking the time to take the mystique out the process. "I think because there wasn’t a preponderance of fast songs, the challenge in a clinical sense was how to pace it, keeping all the stories in mind. I thought by not starting it with a bang it dropped that pressure. You don’t really even have to worry about that. You could put a really good song first, put a really good song after each really good song. It wasn’t really hard, but I do like the sequence." Makes you wonder why all albums can't come out the other end of the pike as cohesive and remarkable as Freedom's Child.
Although R.S. states that the plan was not to start the album out with a bang, you can't play any Billy Joe Shaver song and not have some immediate impact on the senses. The opening track, Hold On To Yours (And I’ll Hold On To Mine) christens the album with unexpected grace. Unlike the honky tonk you’d expect of the song title, the song is instead a reflective lesson on relationships from a man who spent many years admittedly doing it wrong, before he figured it out. Immediately Eddy crosses his mind as he weighs the validity of the lesson he's learned. "I believe that works. Not for everybody, but I think it would work for some. I’ve had some people ask me how’d you raise Eddy and I said I can give you a good look at what not to do. I’m sorry I lost him, but he was 38 years old and he had already gone his own way. You never get through raising them I don’t think, but they wish you would."
The album's second track is the project's first single, Freedom’s Child. The song was written many years ago, and stands apart, if not above some of the post September 11th compositions that have been released. "I was hoping I’d do them in good taste, there are so many tasteless ones out there. I wasn’t trying to make no hits off them because they’re just album cuts, except Freedom’s Child is a single." He explains his intent when he wrote the song. "What that’s actually doing is patting these people on the back that actually volunteer. Like myself, I volunteered for the Navy, they know when they volunteer that they could land in a grave somewhere and nobody even know who they were. They know that, deep in their heart and their soul and mind they know that. Nobody ever really says anything about it. To me it was about was to acknowledge that these people made a contribution. It’s a pat on the back to them, saying thanks a lot for being so unselfish."
As with any Billy Joe Shaver song, there's more than a little of himself tucked inside of the lyrics. When you hear Billy Joe sing the line:
Just another
minor chord in a worn out song
Freedom's Child is marching there, singing Freedom's song,
it's obvious he's making a statement in his own understated, poetic way. "Yeah, I kind of put my own thoughts about the thing in there. I just think war sucks. It really does. So many innocent people on both sides get killed. There’s no way that’s what it’s all about. Those people over there they don’t know, they are just out there trying to hack out a living, doing the best that they can and then all of a sudden a bomb hits them and they’re gone. There’s a lot of people down here that are real rednecks but then there’s a lot of people who will stand up. It takes a real man to stand up and say he really doesn’t like war."
From it's social conscience lyrics and familiar melody, That’s Why The Man In Black Sings The Blues is Johnny Cash. A demonstration that heartfelt patriotism need not be blind, the song points out the imperfections of today's society. "It's not perfect and that’s why Johnny Cash sings the blues. He’s always been that way, I feel like I just plucked the words right out of his mouth and if he sues me he can have it all."
Billy Joe would be the first to tell you his uses his songwriting in lieu of a therapist’s couch. “Cheaper that way” he chuckles. The memories and ghosts of this album are tangible but not overwhelming. "Corsicana Daily Sun", "Wild Cow Gravy", "We" and "Magnolia Mother's Love" demonstrate a sense of faith and hope and the treasuring of good memories amidst the grief and loss.
The album is emotions are tempered with some unexpected treasures tucked alongside the memories. No one writes honky tonk poetry better than Billy Joe Shaver and Drinkin’ Back will prove it if you ever had any doubts. Déja Blues co-written with Todd Snider who also joins on vocals shows a whole new side to Billy Joe while one of the memorable highlights of the album, That’s What She Said Last Night, gives Shaver fans rockin' comfort in the familiar irreverent Shaver rave they've come to know and love.
If there is a song that is any kind of a tribute to the better known aspects of ‘Shaver’ it would be That’s What She Said Last Night." says R.S. "Which is a testament to Billy Joe trying not to be so 'precious and sad.' It just has that rave-up they brought to it."
In heart of the album you'll find the heart and soul of Billy Joe Shaver in the song Day by Day. It's his story, his life. Emotionally raw and artistically simple and stunning the song has been a lifetime in the making. "Bobby kept asking about this song and I said Bobby, it’s going to have to be the last song that I do because I’m going to need all this time to finish writing it. Everything’s changed so much. I’d been writing the song for years, playing with it. A lot of songs I like so well I keep them around for awhile, have fun with them. Then people started passing, things started changing, and I actually finished it right up there in the studio and went just right ahead and recorded it then."
The recording is stark and honest, just Billy Joe's voice and Will Kimbrough on 12 string. R.S. intentionally simplified the arrangement in order to avoid ornamenting the song unnecessarily. What needs to be said is in the lyrics and in Billy Joe's voice. "Will and I both sat in chairs looking at each other with a microphone between us. He played the 12 string and I just sang the lyrics and it pretty much tells the tale. It was therapy for me to get it out. I just had to get it out. A time or two I just thought man, I just said can’t do this, but I knew I could. “Can’t never could do anything” I had learned that all my life. I kept on pushing myself and finally got it out. I’m glad I got it out."
The entire album feels like a gift, but Billy Joe's added a couple of extras, including bonus track Merry Christmas to You. There are those who focus on the fact that this is Billy Joe’s first recording without Eddy in eight years. One listen to the album proves the point invalid. Eddy is no farther away from this project as he’s been from any of the other albums. Fatherly pride comes through as he asks "Have you heard the song, the hidden track?" referring to a seven minute acoustic masterpiece, Necessary Evil by his son. "That was just Eddy out in the garage, just him and his guitar and a little ol’ mic and amplifier. He just put a little mic up there and that was it. It’s just really something. It’s almost seven minutes long and I tell you what, every bit of it’s perfect. I don’t think he made a mistake in it and if he did it sure sounded good." he says with as much admiration as a fellow musician as he does a father.
The natural fusion of his music and life is powerful. His songwriting has made him legendary and his life has deemed him human, proving legends bleed. Freedom’s Child pays tribute to the influences in a life lived to the fullest extremes.
Looking Ahead
With the impending release of Freedom’s Child, life is bound to pick up it’s pace. Billy Joe’s already noticing the increase in pace, in part because of the assertive marketing of Compadre Records. "These people are really good. Brad Turcotte is one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met him my whole life. He just does what he says he’s going to do. That’s what he’s done with me. We’ve got a video, got a single out. Things like that never happened before. There was always a lot of talk but no one ever did what they said they were going to do. This time they did."
Friend, Robert Duval and Billy Joe have exchanged cameo appearances, Billy Joe in Duval's upcoming film "Secondhand Lions" and the Oscar winning actor in the video for Freedom's Child. There are even plans to write a movie script in the works.
Sometimes it seems that if it weren’t for bad luck, Billy Joe would have no luck at all, but time and time again he’s proved his resiliency – overcoming challenges life’s tossed in his path with tenacity, humor and an unwavering faith. Those who come in contact with him can’t go away unaffected.The Duval connection takes on another twist as his longtime partner, Luciana Pedraza, a longtime admirer of Billy Joe has begun filming a documentary on his life. The project includes footage with one of Billy Joe's earliest mentors, his grade 12 English teacher. "She wasn’t really my English teacher, she was my homeroom teacher. She taught grade 12 English here at the high school here in Bellmead Texas. She’s a 102 years old. She broke her hip a week before and she’s just sitting up in that chair, talking. She’s as smart as a whip. Way back yonder she was the one that encouraged me to keep on writing. She had enough authority about her I thought if she thinks I’m good them I must be good, so I realized I was good at an early age. So I kept on writing short stories and poems after that, of course I’d never let anyone see them."
"When I got to Nashville I was pushing 30, it was late in my life. I wasn’t a young man anymore. I got started late but I had all this knowledge and all these songs already written and I knew I was real good at it. Of course the old songwriters said ‘You need to pay your dues, you need to pay your dues.’ It made them real mad that Waylon went ahead and did these songs. I had already paid my dues out here. That’s was another reason to try and make you go home. If you’re real good, all the other songwriters will try to make you go home. Harlan admitted it. I’ll try my best to discourage anybody."
2002 has ended up being the "Year of the Tribute Album" in country music. In the works now is one for Waylon Jennings, and although he has the utmost respect and admiration of the ultimate outlaw, chances are you aren’t going to find Billy Joe’s name on the project. "I’m having some people right now that have been hounding the heck out of me and they will not go away. I’m going to have to tell them. Look, I just don’t want to do it. I’m just not into tribute albums. Waylon has enough really good stuff out there, I think it takes away from him because of the fact they could be playing him on the radio. If they do a tribute to him, it’ll fall way short."
He’s also heard the talk of creating one in his honor. "Tribute albums to me would be for people who are dead. They’ve been wanting me to allow them to do a tribute album, and I guess I can’t stop them. I say to them when you record one of my songs you’ll ruin the chance of someone recording them that really wants to."
R.S. Field notes the difficulty someone would have trying to recapture the magic that happens when Billy Joe sings one of his songs. "They’d be hard pressed. Waylon is dead, he is one of the few that could do him good justice. I think a lot of contemporary country, I won’t say artist – I don’t like that word, that and contemporary country don’t go together in my book, but there would be a lot of spokes-models that would be well served to try and pepper his songs in their records."
Billy Joe holds hope, but acknowledges that the gene pool is getting a little shallow in terms of up and coming songwriters. A few weeks back in participated in a songwriter’s showcase with Roger Wallace and Mike Ireland. He had high marks for Roger's songwriting. "He's got some talent there. He's on the right track. I was literally surprised. He was really into some great stuff, not like you hear every day."
He shares the wisdom of a lifetime of learning, "It's harder for them because so much has been said, so much has been heard. It's harder to say things now that have not already been said. Sometimes you run into guys like Roger out there and they just come up with something that's brand spanking new. I always feel like the one thing we have in common is we're all different, and if we just stick to being deadly honest with ourselves, it'll be different every time. Try to be yourself because there ain't nobody else in the world like you."
R.S. Field sums it up best. "The whole thing about Billy Joe is he is a songwriter, with a capitol S."
Billy Joe Shaver. Sometimes down, but never out – he’s turned into one precious diamond from that ol’ chunk of coal.
Laurie Joulie Take
Country Back November 2002
Listen to the title track, Freedom's Child here.
Sign up for TCB's newsletter by simply sending an e-mail to TCB Weekly News