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Shaver and Coe: Two Outlaws Look at Sixty by RAY WADDELL of the "Countrypolitan" Sound That Ain't Country," and a Brace Son

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Shaver and Coe: Two Outlaws Look at Sixty by RAY WADDELL of the Shaver And Coe: Two Outlaws Look At Sixty BY RAY WADDELL of the "countrypolitan" sound That Ain't Country," and a brace son. Elvis Presley told me, `Play tarist, Eddy, died of a drug over- NASHVILLE- Behind the blind- and a desire to truly reproduce of X -rated albums he's still trying to the audience in front of you.' " dose on New Year's Eve, and Sha- ing mid -'70s spotlight that illu- the studio faithfully onstage. to live down. While he had his ver himself recently suffered a minated outlaw superstars Way - "To me, `outlaw music' and hits, including "Take This Job THE ROUGH SIDE OF SHAVER heart attack. He says his audi- lon Jennings and Willie Nelson, `outlaw' are two separate things," and Shove It" for Johnny Pay- For his part, Billy Joe Shaver ences today "don't seem to be there lurked several other coun- Coe notes. "To be considered an check and his own version of helped jumpstart the whole out- quite as crazy -of course, rules try music outsiders. Few were outlaw then, you didn't [need] to "The Ride," mainstream success law scene, when Waylon Jennings have fixed that. But they appreci- more influential or harder to mostly eluded Coe. ate your music. They're mostly figure than the rough -hewn "A mistake was made in my young, but they know the songs iconoclasts David Allan Coe and career in that they tried to pro- by heart. Sometimes a real pretty Billy Joe Shaver. mote me the same way they did girl will come runnin' up and say, No one in the movement had George Jones or Loretta Lynn, `My grandma told me about you.' " more actual "outlaw" credibility and I was not appealing to that As for the outlaw music, Shaver than Coe, who spent some 20 audience," says Coe, who still says, "I knew it was good. Waylon years of his life in institutions, plays some 200 dates a year to was known as a guy who could including some stretches in packed houses. "I was more of a pick songs as good as Elvis Pres- prison. With his biker looks and Jackson Browne -, Neil Young -, or ley and was a great writer himself. jailhouse tattoos, Coe looked Charlie Daniels -type of enter- Waylon, with his arrangements, just as likely to deliver a butt - tainer. But I think [that] if I had had a lot to do with the way peo- kicking as a song. anything I could do over in my ple played, and everybody jumped While the bestowment of the life, it would be not letting Shel on it. And Waylon didn't have "outlaw" brand has been various- Silverstein talk me into record- nothin' to go by, but as people ly attributed to DJs and journal- ing those two X -rated albums. started to copy it, they had a ists, Coe insists the term origi- Those were meant to be sung plowed row to follow." nated from a newspaper photo of have done something criminally around the campfire for bikers, recorded an entire album of Shaver is equally complimen- a stage appearance he made in wrong, but musically you had to and I still don't sing those songs Shaver's songs, the multi -plat- tary of Nelson: "He's one tough Louisiana with Jennings and Nel- be different. And that has hap- in concert." inum Honky Tonk Heroes, in hombre. If he was a politician and son. Coe wore his Outlaws biker pened all along in country music, He admits that his refusal to 1973. "Waylon really stuck his cleaned up, he'd be president. club colors and packed a pistol. from Hank Williams and Lefty play the game most likely held neck out for me," says Shaver, Willie is all- knowing and wise." He says the incident didn't sit too Frizzell to Little Jimmy Dickens." him back: "I didn't go to lunch, I who turned 60 this year. "After As for the outlaw times, Sha- well with his biker pals. As a songwriter, Coe was capa- didn't have meetings." Today, at that album hit, which everybody ver says he wouldn't have had it "I got beat up for wearing my ble of such sensitive fare as 62, Coe relates more to occasion- said it wouldn't, everybody else any other way. "It was wild and colors onstage, which was against "Would You Lay With Me in a al tour mates Kid Rock, Pantera, changed, too." crazy," he concedes, "but it sure the rules," he recalls. Musically, Field of Stone" and "Jody Like a and Hank Williams III ( "I like Like Coe, Shaver tours steadily, was fun. It was fun for everybody Coe says, outlaw music was a Melody," as well as rougher songs that boy ") than to mainstream but the road has been rough of that got to hear the music and rebellion against the lush strings like "Longhaired Redneck," "If country. "I'm a professional per- late. Shaver's son and lead gui- had it move them." Rivers would add Keen, In- tent," Fulks says, "that shows naked Ladies," he says, adding According to Lewis, larger cul- Outlaws gram, Gary Allan, and a resur- people will support good music, that, "by all means," he consid- tural factors may be at work gent Travis Tritt to the list of acts even if radio doesn't. The main ers himself a country artist. "Tom here. "If there's anything I Continued from preceding page fueling the fire. "It's a bit gritti- thing is loosening the death grip Petty is more country than a lot believe, having lived long enough er, more directed toward men of radio format and consultants of what you hear on country to see cycles, it's when we have even that might not be enough than most of what Nashville has on country music." radio. Just like Willie Nelson had cultural shifts like we're having to break the dam." put out recently, and they sing Wayne says, "The irony is, you more in common with the Sex now with the war and the reces- Certain edgier country stations, about more real -life things," devote your whole life to this Pistols than Kenny Rogers." sion. Creative people begin pro- particularly in Texas, are getting Rivers says. "It's a sound we've stuff, you learn the licks and Keen thinks that if a new out- ducing more things, and con- embraced at the Wolf. It's really learn the songs, then some law scene takes off, it must be good [music], and it matches up spearheaded by core acts the way well with [artists like] Tim Jennings and Nelson did a gener- McGraw and Brooks & Dunn - `I think it's going ation ago. "How it works is you you can play them back -to -back, have your pioneers, then a group and they sound great together." to bust open, and of pretty good imitators come Troy Gentry agrees that male it should, because I behind them, and then it gets listeners seem to relate more to watered down, and you have to the edgier music. "We're giving know people want live with that for five or six years. guys an opportunity to come Regardless of whether you like back to country music. They're to hear this kind Garth Brooks, the guy was a pio- seeing that country music can be of music. As soon neer in bringing this real big, cool, and they're spending their Barnum & Bailey thing to coun- hard -earned money for music as radio figures try music. I was even interested about real people." in what he was doing, and since Butler says, "Country music that out and where then people [have been] trying to has gone way toward pop -and do the same thing, and it just that's not necessarily a bad thing, they fit in, this doesn't work." because some of it has been very could be huge.' So does Ingram think the successful. But at the same time, scene will get bigger? "Yes, I do, there are lots of disenfranchised -JACK INGRAM but a lot of things have to hap- wind of a developing scene. people who call themselves coun pen. I've played 500 dates in the sumers look for pain outside "There are definitely some rum- try music fans who are not get- last three years, and when I play their own and become a little blings going on, and it's exciting ting satisfaction out of the music a gig on Friday night in Texas, tired of fluff." to watch," says Smokey Rivers, heard on country radio. There is dumb radio sumbitch changes 1,000 people show up at $15 a And if the movement inspires assistant PD at KPLX (the Wolf) a gaping hole that somebody or a the game on you. No wonder ticket, and it's real to them." imitators and bandwagon -hop- Dallas. Rivers puts Republic /Uni- group of somebodies could step people like Dale Watson are Ingram says that he doesn't pers? "I don't have a problem versal artist Pat Green and Char- right into." pissed off." think the scene is too fragment- with anybody trying to make lie Robison at the forefront of the If the music does break, some Ingram says his audiences ed or its boundaries too vague, art who believes in what scene, "at least on a mass -appeal think it would be in spite of alone bespeak of a deep potential adding that the same situation they're doing," Ingram says.
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