With staggering highs and bleakest of lows it reads like a passage from the Old Testament.Along with doling out some near smiting outside a bar in Lorena, TX Even Elvis Presley got in on the action. Billy Joe Shaver, who died Wednesday at 81, wrote country songs about what he knew firsthand: sin and heartbreak, hard living and hard working, and … Billy Joe Shaver covered Ride Me Down Easy, Hard to Be an Outlaw, Jesus is the Only One Who Loves Us, To Be Loved by a Woman and other songs. “Just like the songs I leave behind me, I’m gonna live forever now,” the Shavers sing in harmony over acoustic guitar and a thumping rhythm. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. In celebration of Mr. Shaverplaying the beautiful Great American Music Hall tonight I’ve put together videos of what I consider his top 5 songs. New Releases. “I was about to die…But as I was coming down from that mountain at about four in the morning, I sang the first half of that song and got it into my heart…” The song in question was “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal,” a moving meditation of mid-life self-improvement that became a hit in 1981 for the country singer John Anderson. In Shaver’s telling, it’s the one that swayed Jennings to record a bunch of his songs. Exclusive Feature: Kyle LaLone – ‘Honky Tonk Stage’, Buck Owens’ A Merry ‘Hee Haw’ To Be Released, William Elliott Whitmore New Album Coming This Fall, Twang Nation – The Best In Americana Music. 1’: How New Collection Came Together, ‘Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. Rock Cellar Magazine published an obituary based on an announcement by SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country channel. These are in no certain order and hardly close to being complete list of this legendary man’s best. However, if there's anyone who deserves enough hits to fill a CD, it's Shaver, and this compilation offers an overview of his career since joining forces with Compadre Records in 2002. “After I played him a bunch of my songs, he called in his band and we got to work.” Jennings put out the Honky Tonk Heroes LP in ’73 with nine Shaver-penned tunes, kicking things off with the wry title track. 1: The Early Years (1963-1967)’ Takes Us Back to the Legendary Artist’s Young Folkie Days, Weakest (and Strongest) Zodiac Sign: The Seal of Mars. Jennings sings about leaving his hell-raising days, yesterday’s wine, and some satisfied women in the past as he prepares himself for the final leap, or maybe he just wants to turn over a new leaf. One or two featuring his talented son Eddie, who left us too soon, on guitar. Billy Joe Shaver, who died Wednesday at 81, wrote country songs about what he knew firsthand: sin and heartbreak, hard living and hard working, and ultimately salvation. This timing is a bit problematic, since it means his earlier recordings for Columbia, Capricorn, Zoo, and New West aren't here, and those labels have the rights to much of his best and most popular songs, and a number of his best known tunes (such as "Georgia on a Fast Train," "Old Chunk of Coal," and "Honky Tonk Heroes") are included in live recordings that, while spirited, aren't quite up to the standards of the studio originals. “I wanted to take every song and make it about something different. Bobby Bare covered it the same year it came out, in 1973, with a more upbeat arrangement, and just missed the Top 10 with it, and Shaver covered it himself in 1982 on his Billy Joe Shaver LP, sounding more down-on-his-luck than Jennings. Billy Joe Shaver, who died Wednesday at 81, wrote country songs about what he knew firsthand: sin and heartbreak, hard living and hard working, and ultimately In 1993, Shaver took stock of his impact in the song “Live Forever,” which he cowrote with his son Eddy. When Shaver played “Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me” after the Dripping Springs Reunion in 1972, Waylon Jennings took notice and extended an invitation to come write songs for him in Nashville. That's how beloved he is. He is considered to have written some of outlaw country music's best songs. Shaver’s career spanned … J.B. Everyone from Waylon to Jamey Johnson to Nanci Griffith would sing this honky-tonk ballad, but there were few cuts Shaver was more proud of than Elvis Presley’s theatrical 1973 rendition of this tearjerker. J.F. “The devil made me do it the first time, the second time I did it on my own,” Shaver growls in one of many killer lines in “Black Rose,” recorded for Old Five and Dimers Like Me the same year Jennings cut it for Honky Tonk Heroes. Internet connection and other tech doesn't grow on trees folks. 6. K.G. Restless Wind: The Legendary Billy Joe Shaver 1973-1987. Originally recorded for Waylon Jennings’ 1973 opus Honky Tonk Heroes, “Ain’t No God in Mexico” was also cut by Shaver for his 1976 album When I Get My Wings. Shaver was barely 35 when he first released the tune, but as the songwriter and his contemporaries aged into the song’s later-in-life nostalgia, it would only become more potent. Billy Joe Shaver, the outlaw country music singer-songwriter, has died in his native Texas after suffering a stroke. The age in his voice gives this rendition more depth and poignancy than the first take. I do believe that when people pass away, the goodness, the good things they did, it seems like they melt into your likeness … and you become a better person for it.” K.G.