Album Review – Billy Joe Shaver’s “Long In The Tooth”
Forget all the Johnny Come Lately’s ladies and gentlemen. If you want to witness the last remaining vestige of what once was the high flying revolutionary original Outlaw movement in country music, if you want to see the last remaining example of the piss and vinegar, the cowboy poetry, the tried and true rebellious nature that defined what an original country music Outlaw really was, Billy Joe Shaver is the last living true specimen of the genre. He’s the one who never came down off that mountain, who never gave up the ghost, who is still fighting tooth and nail every day and night for what he has, and hasn’t given up one speck of ground when it comes to energy and appetite for the music over his legendary career.
When you watch Billy Joe Shaver perform live, you don’t have to rely on the mythos surrounding the man to enjoy his show. Billy Joe Shaver is no museum piece. He doesn’t come out and ride off of his past accomplishments while sitting on a stool with his laurels stuffed in his back pockets. He puts on a show that kicks the ass of most performers a third of his age—punching and bobbing and singing and performing his guts out like it’s his last performance ever, and all of this from a man who’s arguably known first and foremost as a songwriter, not a performer. If you put a stool out on stage for him, he’d kick its ass during the first stanza of “Georgia On A Fast Train” and then dance a jig around its splintered corpse during the guitar solo. Billy Joe Shaver is what Outlaw country music is all about: never giving in.
We have waited seven damn years for the 74-year-old to finally put out another album of original music, and Long In The Tooth is well worth the wait. The album finds Billy Joe Shaver sitting tall in the saddle, shouting and spitting, brandishing his fists and taking potshots, and shining in moments of unexpected sentimentality.
In some respects this album can be taken as a companion piece to Shaver’s dear friend Willie Nelson’s recent album Band of Brothers. On that album, Willie featured two Billy Joe Shaver-penned songs, “The Git Go” and “Hard To Be An Outlaw”, and those are two of the first three tracks on Long In The Tooth. Honesty, and as you would expect, Shaver’s versions are slightly better, and are sung with such conviction it can give you shivers. Shaver might now be in his 70’s, but his current songwriting output holds up to the lofty standards he set for himself years ago. “The Git Go” and “Hard To Be An Outlaw” are the two biggest takeaways from Long In The Tooth, and for completely different reasons. “Hard To Be An Outlaw” is the bellicose, “climb-the-highest-building-in-Nashville-like-King-Kong-and-shoot-the-double-bird” type of song, while “The Git Go” is pious, poetic, yet still grounded and folksy in its wrinkled wisdom.
Long In The Tooth comes out of the shoot like a bronking bull. Billy Joe Shaver announces immediately that this is not going to be some gray-haired, geriatric affair. He may be 74, but he will still kick everyone’s ass in the room if he has to, and do it in the name of Jesus. As the album proceeds though, there are some astounding moments where Shaver, whose zeal can sometimes exceed his vocal prowess, shows off a set of pipes in love songs that stir the heart with the same ferocity as his boot stompers shake the bones. “I Love You As Much As I Can” and especially “I’m In Love” capture timeless performances from Shaver, whose voice sounds as strong and sincere as it ever did. It’s almost shocking, especially with the throat gravel Billy Joe unearths on some of the other tracks, how remarkably Shaver has held onto his singing voice and the control he displays.
The controversial song on the album (if you want to call it that) is the title track. It has some people (including Shaver himself in certain interviews) saying that he’s rapping, though I’m not sure that’s how I would characterize it. The song is drenched in Crybaby guitar pedals and spit on the microphone as Shaver does his best to scare off old age in a merciless exploration of whatever is left of his id and machismo. If a song like this came from someone like Hank Williams Jr. or another country star who is trying desperately (and embarrassingly) to hold on to their youthful career, we’d be laughing and labeling them a sellout. But Shaver is so far beyond that phase, this song is simply meant to be taken as fun, and it should be. It is good for a few passes, though it certainly is not representative of the best music the album has to offer.
READ: 10 Badass Billy Joe Shaver Moments
Shaver’s songwriting continues to impress as the album progresses, including with the train number “Sunbeam Special”, and the witty song for the common man, “Checkers And Chess”.
Blame the seven year hiatus for helping to refine his material, blame his immortal spirit that refuses to let him sit down, or blame the talent within him that appears to be bottomless. But at 74-years-old, Billy Joe Shaver is still schooling an army of artists who would love to label themselves Outlaws, but don’t have the acumen to truly understand what the word even means, let alone the skills to pull it off, or the history to back it up.
In Outlaw country music in 2014, there’s Billy Joe Shaver, and everyone else.
1 3/4 of 2 Guns Up
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Preview & Purchase Tracks to Long In The Tooth
August 5, 2014 @ 10:04 am
Trigger,
I assume you are going to cover Shaver’s interview on NPR sometime soon? It was on this morning and was really, really cool. He told the story about threatening to kick Waylan’s ass. I believe it’s on their website now.
August 5, 2014 @ 11:32 am
I rarely cover stories of stories, unless it is something extraordinary or newsworthy on its own. The story of Shaver confronting Waylon is a great one and I’ve covered it numerous times on the site. But it’s a great interview and I have it linked in the news stream and people should listen if they have the chance.
August 5, 2014 @ 10:06 am
I can’t wait to get my grubby hands on this album! Thanks for the review.
August 5, 2014 @ 11:18 am
I just met him before his concert a few weeks ago. He signed the Honkytonk Hero’s album, a photo, and 2 printed lyrics of “Aint No God in Mexico” and “Honkytonk Hero’s”.
It was my first time seeing him, and he is the nicest guy and the funniest guy you’ll ever meet. He performed some of his new songs and some of his hits. It was the best $18 I ever spent.
August 5, 2014 @ 2:59 pm
Willie, Waylon and Kris certainly garnered most of the attention during the nascent outlaw period.
But I wouldn’t take anything for the lesser known Tompall Glazer and Billy Joe Shaver.
Or Johnny Paycheck, who had a voice that would make George Jones jealous.
Outlaw was simply what they were, it wasn’t a label to seek or a lifestyle to emulate.
The singers today who proclaim to be outlaws look like poseurs and clowns.
August 5, 2014 @ 11:52 pm
“Or Johnny Paycheck, who had a voice that would make George Jones jealous.”
I disagree. Paycheck did not have the vocal frequency range that Jones had. Instead, like many other Outlaw singers, Paycheck relied significantly on volume variation (for example, compare his version of “Barstool Mountain” with Moe Bandy’s original).
August 5, 2014 @ 4:15 pm
Loving the album.Billy Joe Shaver puts his heart and soul into every word of every song.Angry,funny,reflective,heartbreaking it doesn’t matter Billy Joe has it all nailed to his chest.
August 5, 2014 @ 4:20 pm
Can’t wait to check this one out!! Billy Joe is one of my favorites and a hero of mine. God Bless Billy Joe Shaver and God Bless real country music!
August 5, 2014 @ 4:47 pm
Billy Joe Shaver got 1 3/4 guns but Florida Georgia Line got 2 guns.
I do not believe that any rational mind could do this.
August 5, 2014 @ 4:55 pm
Oh my God.
For the 20th time.
I don’t review ARTISTS, I review ALBUMS and SONGS.
To give one artist a certain review because they’re a legend, and another a certain review just because they reside in the mainstream, would render ALL my reviews useless because they would simply be a vehicle for me pushing an agenda as opposed to giving an unbiased viewpoint.
Also, “Long In The Tooth” is an ALBUM. Florida Georgia Line’s “Dirt” is a SONG. Comparing the two is irrelevant. If you are going to do a side-by side comparison, you would have to do it with two songs, or two albums.
I gave Florida Georgia Line’s “Here For The Good Times” two guns down, and this album 1 3/4 of 2 guns up. This is the only comparison that is relevant in this case.
And the fact that you’re even thinking about a FGL song review when reading a review for Billy Joe Shaver shows that you have your own agenda, and your own bias that is unfair to both artists.
I stand behind this review, and my review of FGL’s “Dirt” 100%. If you’re looking for a website that panders to constituencies, you came to the wrong place.
August 5, 2014 @ 9:19 pm
It’s hard to believe that a rational mind would expect everyone to adhere to his or her own personal standards as well, but you seem to have that mastered.
August 5, 2014 @ 9:14 pm
“If a song like this came from someone like Hank Williams Jr. or another country star who is trying desperately (and embarrassingly) to hold on to their youthful career, we”™d be laughing and labeling them a sellout. But Shaver is so far beyond that phase, this song is simply meant to be taken as fun, and it should be.”
Isn’t this hypocrisy in and of itself? Acknowledging the double standard doesn’t diffuse it, it simply shows disregard for the unfair nature of such terms. ALL of the songs that you tear apart here are simply meant to be taken as “fun” and if we’re judging by that criteria their wouldn’t be any reason to complain. Of course, this song is actually country but that shouldn’t excuse it. I recognize bias as I frequently flaunt my own about a certain country duo that Mr. Shaver has collaborated with in the past (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeJ4kp1AwY4), but that comment irked me a bit.
August 5, 2014 @ 11:50 pm
I wasn’t acknowledging the double standard, I was explaining why it doesn’t exist. Hank Jr., for example, can dye his hair and get up on stage with Kid Rock and engage with all manner of histrionics and fool the audience that he is still 39, and tries to do that all the time. That would NEVER happen with Billy Joe Shaver, so this can’t be pointed at as his motivation.
August 6, 2014 @ 11:46 am
So you’re telling me that if Luke Bryan or Blake Shelton cut the exact same song in the exact same style you wouldn’t complain? You’d just sit back and say “it’s supposed to be a fun song and should be appreciated as such”? Granted, Billy Joe is Billy Joe but that exactly what I’m talking about. He can do what he wants just because of his brand. How do you know Hank Jr.’s escapades with Kid Rock aren’t just made to be “fun” and intended to be taken as such? His 2002 album The Almeria Club Recordings features the much maligned song “The ‘F’ Word” and I didn’t think it was half bad and also accurate (in that dunderheaded Bocephus sort of way). I got the feeling that song was similar to Billy Joe’s here but you bring it up a lot to show how far Junior has fallen. Another song on that album is “Last Pork Chop” which is also stupid but meant to be fun, but somehow I get the feeling that you wouldn’t be a fan of that one, either. I’m not saying you or anyone else has to like or dislike a song but applying different criteria to different artists is a double standard. Regardless of whether that artist has earned respect or tarnished it, applying a filter to their work is biased. But I still enjoyed this review, don’t get me wrong, and I’m still a loyal SCM reader as you know, so don’t take this as a rant or anything. I’m just observing what I feel happens every now and again around here.
August 6, 2014 @ 12:19 pm
So you”™re telling me that if Luke Bryan or Blake Shelton cut the exact same song in the exact same style you wouldn”™t complain?
N, I’m saying I would complain. We’re having a communication breakdown here Acca Dacca.
August 6, 2014 @ 8:36 pm
Is that so? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoqQnR8NOVI
August 6, 2014 @ 6:47 am
Just checked my Amazon order and I think my copy should arrive tomorrow.
I saw Billy Joe for the first time last month in DC. Just a great, great show. Great band, too. It was a joy and a privilege to be in the same room as him. And when he flashes one of those great big Billy Joe Shaver smiles, it just makes you feel warm all over.
May 11, 2017 @ 6:25 am
This record is still awesome