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SHAVER
The Earth Rolls On
(New West)
(June/July 2001)
When Eddy Shaver, prepossessing homegrown Texas guitar hero, died last winter from a reported heroin overdose, the music world lost an artist arguably as kinetic and poignant as Stevie Ray Vaughan, but far less recognized as such outside of a small circle of friends and followers. In one fell swoop, Billy Joe Shaver lost both his son and his masterful sidekick, creator of the electric boogie romp that accompanied the older Shaver's grizzly gospel singing. The Earth Rolls On, held in limbo for over a year, and whose title is soberly apropos, can be viewed as both tribute and testimony. Produced and engineered by fine-fingered Ray Kennedy, this record caps the Shavers' intriguing musical trajectory. And it is the most absorbing, cohesive work of their collaborative career.
Like Louis Armstrong's, Billy Joe's crackling, gnarled voice rubs many listeners wrong. It's not a made-for-Nashville set of pipes, nor a classic growl like Johnny Cash's. Rather, Shaver's wrinkly hillbilly vocals suggest a hardscrabble life. You hear it in the shimmer of honest-to-god prayer, in biting phrases, in his Southern outlaw honky-tonk balladry.
Earth's brisk, upbeat opener, "Love Is So Sweet," finds Shaver wavering between wry confession ("I've got a thing or two to say/Don't wanna bore you with no tough tongue twister") and-gasp!-suave, radio-friendly pop phrasing ("Love is so sweet/Makes you bounce when you walk down the street"). Yet the follow-up, "Evergreen Fields"-with dark, driving lyrics like "Youth has forsaken this old man/No harvest is waiting for me," low-tumbling tom toms, throbbing organ, and building guitar bravura-is firmly back in durable Shaver territory: a wizened craftsman's melding of story, spirit, and blood.
There are less intense in-between moments too, including loose, rambling shuffles like "Hard Headed Heart" ("ain't hard to come by") and drooping blues numbers like "Sail Of My Soul" and "Leavin' Amarillo" that flesh out the musical palette. Eddy's backing vocals on "Blood Is Thicker Than Water," the Shavers' only recorded duet together, are a kind of handsome tonic to Billy Joe's parched delivery as he unrolls a reminder that "The powers that be are leading you and me/Like two lambs to the slaughter." The lush re-recorded version of "Restless Wind" and the punchy, country-fried "New York City Girl" counterbalance the Shaver family minefield. And to remind us that songwriters always wear their emotions pinned to their rumpled sleeves, "You're Too Much For Me," with its acoustic and steel guitar-packed lines, rings like a backwater broken hearts club: "I can't take anymore/You're too much for me/Have fun with yourself/Be wild and free."
Even though Eddy was influenced by axe-handlers like Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Winter, and Dickey Betts (who gave Eddy his first guitar), he never bogs down in flamboyant guitar pyrotechnics. Instead, he offers up the sturdy, pinpoint rhythmic push of songs like "It's Not Over Till It's Over," sinewy ebb and flow in "You're Too Much For Me," and slow, sonic understatements that eavesdrop on his father's sad sonata "Heart's A Bustin." The accompaniment of E Street Band's Garry Tallent on bass and Wilco's Ken Coomer on drums and Jay Bennett on keyboards adds a homey, backyard bayou texture and finesse to the pot.
To close, the Shavers use the steady, sonorous "Earth Rolls On" as both mantra and gut-wrenching epilogue. The knowledge that the old man has weathered the deaths of his son, wife, and mother within a few short years is more than enough to clench a listener's heart as Eddy's mercurial guitar solo swallows up the last half of the song.
While the spare religiosity of Victory (New West, 1998) was off-putting to some, Electric Shaver (New West, 1999) too bulky and uneven, and Highway Of Life (Justice, 1996) a bit stodgy and studied due to session players, The Earth Rolls On is a zenith work, as full-bodied and varied as the band was live. It's a working-class universe resurrected in 14 songs, and the final tome of Eddy, whose at once easy-going, instinctive, and careening guitar work has earned its rightful place in the myth and mystery of modern country music.
-David Ensminger
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