There is a good deal of humor to the performance, as you might expect, and that humor is present at the very beginning, in a playful introduction by Jeff Shelby, his voice like that of a television show host as he announces the coin toss to see which artist will sing first. Billy Joe Shaver wins, and the first song of the album is “Georgia On A Fast Train,” which features some excellent stuff by Jesse Taylor on guitar, particularly toward the end. Interestingly, the original release began with another Billy Joe Shaver song after the coin toss, “Good News Blues,” which then led to “Georgia On A Fast Train,” so two of his songs in a row. “Georgia On A Fast Train” was on Billy Joe Shaver’s self-titled 1982 release as well as Shaver’s 1993 album Tramp On Your Street. It’s a fun song to get things moving. While that first song brought Georgia to this Australian audience, the second song mentions Dallas in its first line, “From a cheap hotel in Dallas.” This is a mellower tune, originally included on Kinky Friedman’s debut album, Sold American. I love the humor of this song, particularly in those final lines: “You said you’d always love me/How could you, stop/In pieces on the runway/I love you, stop.”
Billy Joe Shaver then delivers “Star In My Heart,” a song
from his 2001 album The Earth Rolls On.
I love this song, and this is a beautiful, heartfelt, honest rendition. Check
out these lyrics: “Don’t waste your
precious thoughts on me/And my tired old dreams/Your soul is bursting at the
seams/You are finally free/To be even more than you could ever dream of.”
That’s followed by another of the disc’s highlights, “Rapid City, South Dakota,”
a great folk song from Kinky Friedman’s 1974 self-titled album. “He said, I hope to God she finds the goodbye
letter that I wrote her/But the mail don’t move so fast in Rapid City, South Dakota.”
Billy Joe Shaver follows that with “I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I’m
Gonna Be A Diamond Someday),” which here is titled simply “Old Chunk Of Coal.”
This classic from the early 1980s feels like a traditional song, in part
because of its main lines. This version features some excellent work on guitar.
“Sold American,” the title track from Kinky Friedman’s debut album, is a song that always rings true and is beautifully sad. It is yet another of this disc’s highlights. Then Billy Joe Shaver gives us “Ride Me Down Easy,” a tune from his 1976 album When I Get My Wings. I love the laugh in his voice as he sings of “satisfied women.” Kinky Friedman provides a funny introduction for “Wild Man From Borneo”: “Basically my job was to help people who’d been farming successfully for over two thousand years to improve their agricultural methods.” The song itself has a sweet vibe, with some nice work on keys. “Well, the tattooed lady left the circus train/Lost all her pictures in the rain/I wonder if you’re happy, I wonder if you’re free/I wonder if you’ll ever know the mark you left on me.” Kinky Friedman also included this song on his 2015 release The Loneliest Man I Ever Met. That’s followed by “When The Fallen Angels Fly,” another moving song. Check out these lines: “I know no one’s ever loved me/Like you’re loving me tonight/There is something you must tell me/You think I won’t understand/How you found such worldly pleasure/In the arms of other men/But I would never try to judge you/We have both been wrong and right/But I know no one’s ever loved you/Like I’m loving you tonight.” This is so goddamn good.
Kinky Friedman introduces “Marilyn And Joe” by saying he’s written only one love song, and this is it. He also mentions that “Billy Joe has written a great many of them.” This song has a Shakespeare reference, which I appreciate. “There is a place where you can go/Where Marilyn’s still dancing with DiMaggio/And Juliet with Romeo/And the name of the place is love.” Billy Joe Shaver follows that with one of his “great many” love songs, “You Asked Me To,” a song he co-wrote with Waylon Jennings, and which Jennings included on Honky Tonk Heroes. As Shaver begins it, someone in the audience whistles appreciatively. “Let the world call me a fool/But if things are right with me and you/That’s all that matters and I’ll do/Anything you ask me to.” I love that lead on guitar. Then Kinky Friedman gives us “Before All Hell Breaks Loose,” a song for our times. It begins with the line “Time to resign from the human race,” and it’s a fun one, featuring some delicious work on both guitar and keys. The line “God save the queen and the kangaroos” receives a cheer from the Australian audience. That’s followed by “Honky Tonk Heroes,” which Billy Joe Shaver dedicates to Waylon Jennings, who had died just before these concerts took place.
“Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed” is a delightful, playful number about women’s liberation. It even features kazoo, and is the only song I can think of offhand that uses the word “harpies.” That’s followed by “Live Forever,” in which Billy Joe Shaver sings “Just like the songs I leave behind me/I’m going to live forever now.” Billy Joe Shaver died in 2020, at the age of 81, and has left us a lot of fantastic songs. That’s followed by another Billy Joe Shaver song, “You Wouldn’t Know Love (If You Fell In It),” which here is delivered a cappella, giving it a very different feel from the version on Electric Shaver. It’s a totally fun, though short rendition. “You wouldn’t know love if you fell in it/You didn’t break my heart this time, but you dang sure bent it.”
There is some playful banter about religion before Kinky Friedman begins “Ride ‘Em Jewboy,” an incredible and touching song about the Holocaust. “I'm, I'm with you, boy/If I’ve got to ride six million miles/Now the smoke from camps a-rising/See the helpless creatures on their way.” That’s followed by “Old Five And Dimers Like Me,” another of the album’s highlights, featuring a great vocal performance. “It’s taken me so long now that I know I believe/All that I do or say is all I ever will be/Too much ain’t enough for old and five and dimers like me/Too far, too high, and too deep ain’t too much to see.” The album’s only cover is “Keep On The Sunnyside,” a sing-along, with some laughter from the musicians. The encore is “Try And Try Again.” In the song’s introduction, Billy Joe Shaver mentions that he recently lost his wife and son. The song is about continuing afterward, giving life another try. “I know someday the world will learn to sing a better song/The blind will see, the deaf will hear, we all will sing along/The fighting will be ended and all hunger will be gone.”
CD Track List
- Intro Coin Toss
- Georgia On A Fast Train
- Western Union Wire
- Star In My Heart
- Rapid City, South Dakota
- Old Chunk Of Coal
- Sold American
- Ride Me Down Easy
- Wild Man From Borneo
- When The Fallen Angels Fly
- Marilyn And Joe
- You Asked Me To
- Before All Hell Breaks Loose
- Honky Tonk Heroes
- Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed
- Live Forever
- You Wouldn’t Know Love (If You Fell In It)
- Ride ‘Em Jewboy
- Old Five And Dimers Like Me
- Keep On The Sunnyside
- Try And Try Again
- Outro Thanks And Goodbye!
Live Down Under was released on October 15, 2021 through Omnivore Recordings.
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