Billy Joe Shaver Brings the Texas Out California Way

By the time Billy Joe Shaver arrived at the Palms Playhouse last Wednesday night, he’d already had what must have seemed like a very long day. Just that morning, he’d been in a Texas courtroom pleading no contest to misdemeanor gun charges in connection with the now infamous “Where do you want it?” incident. That’s enough of a Hump Day for a man half of Shaver’s 70 years, but no, then he had a flight to California to catch–a flight which was delayed, leaving him still rushing to the venue at the show’s scheduled start time.

When he finally did hit the stage, Shaver was all smiles, letting neither the events of the morning nor a bum shoulder (it’ll require surgery when he finds the time) slow him down much. True, he rambled a bit more than usual and didn’t seem to get quite the energy he wanted out of the crowd, but he had them lining up clear to the back of the venue to meet him afterwards just the same.

Beginning with “Georgia on a Fast Train” and winding his way through a self-written set of outlaw classics, roadhouse rockers, and occasional spoken poetry interludes, Shaver kept the crowd laughing and singing along, though never quite dancing down the lone aisle of the historic Winters Opera House. He plays with a young band—including a 16-year-old guitar prodigy named Adam Carter who’s shades of Eddy Shaver—but he’s still the most animated one up there. He flaps his arms, stomps his feet, punches the air in front of him, slow dances with himself, laughs at his own antics. You couldn’t look away if you wanted to.

Shaver’s a nut and a hell raiser, sure—he joked that Willie and Waylon used to give him the drugs first to see if they should mess with them or not—but he’s also one of the great American songwriters, a guy who writes his life in song and holds his lyrics dear for the memories they contain. “I love my songs,” he stated plainly, more like an affectionate father than a writer with something to prove. These are the songs that sustain him, the songs he sings to himself even when there’s nobody there to hear them. They’re the songs that sustain us, too. As a country music fan, any night you get to hear classics like “Honky Tonk Heroes,” “Black Rose,” “I’m Just An Old Chunk of Coal,” “When Fallen Angels Fly,” and “Live Forever” done by the guy who wrote them is a pretty good night.

Getting loose and getting saved aren’t just preoccupations of Shaver’s songs: they’re the central tensions of his life. He apologized so many times for shooting a guy in the face that, by the end, he was apologizing for apologizing so much and wondering aloud if he’d ever get to heaven. The 2007 incident clearly still troubles him. Most recently, because his ‘no contest’ plea endorses the version of events that has him entering the bar with the gun, even though he maintains that it was actually out in the truck up until just before he used it. Regardless, the legal dealings are finally done and now he’s trying to put the case behind him. The rest is between Billy Joe and the fellow he sang about in “You Just Can’t Beat Jesus Christ,” which seemed to be the closer until he threw in “Oklahoma Wind” and “Heart of Texas” for good measure.

With Shaver running late, The Bottom Dwellers stretched their planned 30 minute opening set to nearly an hour, mixing originals like “I Think I Need a Drink” and “Paso Robles” with covers of “I Never Go Around Mirrors” and “Honky Tonk Blues.” Their rendition of “Little Sadie” was a particular treat, the only song on which the band’s two singers (Ivan Sohrakoff and Adam Hancock) traded vocals. While smiling Sohrakoff strummed acoustic and barrel-voiced Hancock tore off electric licks throughout, upright bassist Mark Eagleton held down a beat thick enough to compensate for the absence of the band’s drummer. The local band apparently gets a fair number of opening gigs for touring acts that pass through the area, and it’s a spot they fill admirably.