Billy Joe Shaver is the real deal. Born in Corsicana, Texas, raised in Waco. Mother worked in a honky-tonk. Shaver himself worked as a bull rider and a bronco buster, in addition to more pedestrian go-rounds as a gas station attendant, car salesman and sawmill worker, where he lost parts of four fingers on his right hand in an accident. Married and divorced the same women three times. Kicked around Nashville and Texas for several years before being "discovered," first by Bobby Bare, then by Tom T. Hall, later by Waylon Jennings -- all of whom had varying amounts of success with Shaver-penned tunes, as did Johnny Cash, Johnny Rodriguez, and the king himself, Elvis Presley.
Is any of that important to know if you're gonna try to enjoy the music this legend has produced on his own? Maybe not, but it helps to paint the picture that Shaver has lived a full life -- and plenty of it prior to the recording of this Kris Kristofferson-produced debut, originally released by Monument Records in 1973.
A lot of folks call this Shaver's zenith, and I'd be hard-pressed to differ. Musically speaking, think early Guy Clark, or Terry Allen. But it's the lyrics that set this apart from most of Shaver's contemporaries. He masterfully mixes tales of drifting, losing, hard living and hard loving, of fucking up and starting over again, and, most importantly, of not giving up. He also has a singular knack for including references to Jesus Christ in pretty much everything he writes without ever getting anything close to preaching.
Mostly though, these are songs of resigning oneself to one's limitations, warts and all. From the opening tale of the hard-headed screwup in "Black Rose" ("The devil made me do it the first time/The second time I done it on my own"), to his own personal Vietnam era "war is dumb" take on the previously unreleased "Christian Soldiers", these are songs that sound just as perfect on a lonely Saturday night, with a shot of Jack Daniels in front of you, as they do while you're nursing the hangover the following Sunday morn. His tribute to buddy Willie Nelson, "Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me", is an Outlaw classic, and the title track has been recorded by both Hall (whose hilarious original liner notes are included) and Jennings, who recorded an album full of Shaver tunes on Honky Tonk Heroes.
Old Five and Dimers Like Me was originally largely ignored; it has been out of print and desired by collectors for years, which makes this reissue of immense importance. Songwriters don't get much better than Billy Joe Shaver, and songwriting doesn't get much better than this.
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