New Book Explores Legacy Of Outlaw Country Pioneer Billy Joe Shaver

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A new book on Billy Joe Shaver, Live Forever: The Songwriting Legacy of Billy Joe Shaver, will be released July 21 through Texas A&M University Press.

Penned by roots music writer Courtney S. Lennon, the book is based on in-depth interviews conducted prior to Shaver’s passing in 2020, and offers a host of iconic artists, singer-songwriters, road-worn veterans, and up-and-coming musicians who were impacted by Shaver’s life and songwriting.

Shaver wrote nine of the ten songs included on Waylon Jennings’s Honky Tonk Heroes album and played a major role in the origins and development of the outlaw country movement of the 1970s. With a catalog that includes “Ride Me Down Easy,” “I Been to Georgia On a Fast Train,” “Honky Tonk Heroes,” and “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal,” Shaver has been named by Ray Wylie Hubbard, alongside Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, as a member of the “holy trinity” of Texas songwriters. He exerted a deep influence on Texas music and especially Lone Star singer-songwriters, and is cited as a chief inspiration on generations of artists.

This is Lennon’s first book with TAMU Press after spending over a decade as editor of online roots music magazine, Turnstyled, Junkpiled. The book follows veteran Texas music author Brian T. Atkinson’s volumes in the Songwriting Legacy series on Shaver’s fellow Texas legends Townes Van Zandt, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Mickey Newbury, and Roky Erickson.

“Billy Joe Shaver was one of Texas’ greatest songwriters and a pillar of country music,” Lennon notes. “Live Forever is a testament to that.”

Lorie Hollabaugh
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