Fave Country Reissues*/Prev. Unreleased****Billy Joe Shaver & Kinky Friedman's Live From Down Under is plain & vivid: very clear sound, with a couple of steel-string acoustics, lead & rhythm, some pie-ner; that's all they need. Shaver's songs & singin' do their sincere, slick, hooky thing, as expected, but also Friedman is surprisingly affecting---I'd previously mostly rated him for "Ride 'Em. Jewboy," which is here, and low-key but pointed and poignant, and "My Shit's Fucked Up," which is not here----maybe Zevon hadn't yet sent this, one of his last dispatches, and one of his strongest, funniest and scariest ever. Uh-oh: a degree of sincerity seems, as it always has, to extend to KF's own "Get Your Biscuits In The Oven and Your Buns in the Bed" ("Wimmen's LIberation has done gone to your head").
Shaver finishes with a song he says he's written after the recent deaths of his wife and son (press sheet adds his mother, also his recent heart attack and surger, incl. refused follow-up).
Backstory:
"Ladies and gentlemen, two Texas legends, Billy Joe Shaver and Kinky Friedman!" announced Jeff "Little Jewford" Shelby before the nightly coin toss to decide who in this dynamic double-bill, quadruple heart bypass contender Billy Joe or singing crime novelist Kinky would go first. The spotlight then passed back and forth between the duo, supported in Vaudevillian fashion by guitarist Jesse Taylor, Washington Ratso and of course Little Jewford.
Depending on how you look at it or who's talking, the Live Down Under tour probably shouldn't have happened or it was the best thing that could've happened. Either way, it was a minor miracle most would say and now a thing of myth and legend.
It started when Shaver, still recovering from the loss of his mother, wife and son was lured out of mourning in 2001 by the Kinkster to do their "Two For Texas" tour that ended with Billy Joe unexpectedly suffering a heart attack at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas that August. Angioplasty was performed but Shaver, fearing the risks, was resisting medical advice to have quadruple heart by-pass surgery taking karmic instruction from Willie (Nelson) to get out and stay active. Soon commitments to bring the tour to Australia were made.
Kinky Friedman: "The doctors wanted him to have the surgery but he said no. And they didn't want him going to Australia with Kinky. That it was the wrong thing to do. But Billy Joe was in a dark place; the recent family tragedies, the health concerns. Staying home with the curtains drawn and all its temptations seemed as risky as going. Willie and I both agreed, the best therapy he could have was to get out and have a good time."
And it was.
Billy Joe performed every night like his life depended on it. And it did. And it pushed everyone to the same level of intensity. Featuring hits like "Honky Tonk Heroes," "You Asked Me To," "Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed," "Sold American" and more, showcasing some of the best material from both writers' storied careers, and delivered in a way that only these best friends and odd couple could. So put on Live Down Under, sit back, listen and perhaps come to appreciate these two unique artists in a way you hadn't before. A one-of-a-kind experience.
― dow, Thursday, 27 June 2024 21:25 (one year ago)