The Devil and Billy Joe Shaver

Originally published May 3, 2001

When Billy Joe Shaver gives directions to his modest house on the outskirts of Waco, he says to disregard the handwritten sign on his front door. "Please do not disturb. I haven't slept in two days," it says.

"That's just so some ol' drunks don't come by at 5 in the morning to talk," Shaver explains. " 'Course I used to be one of 'em, so I really can't complain too much."

The self-effacing "lovable loser and no-account boozer" left the bottle behind long ago and has returned to his honky-tonk hero status with a stunning new album. The old chunk of coal has become a diamond in the eyes of critics, who are gushing over Shaver like they haven't since 1993's "Tramp On Your Street." Fans are packing his shows and lining up afterward to shake his two-fingered right hand and give him homemade gifts. At a recent show in Luckenbach, a woman gave Billy Joe a saucer-shaped rock on which she had painted, "If I could sit across the porch from God, I'd thank him for lending us your music."

The 61-year-old in the blue work shirt, whose face is the map of Texas music, can't fully enjoy the attention, however. He doesn't even listen to the record he's so proud of, because hearing it just reminds him of the hole in his band, the hollow in his heart, where his son Eddy used to be. The 38-year-old ex-prodigy, who looked like a Guitar World cover in the making when he started playing professionally with his dad at age 12, succumbed to a heroin overdose on Dec. 31, 2000, the morning after he received an advance to record a solo album for Antone's Records.

"We knew going in that it was our last record together," Shaver says. "So we worked really hard to make it a good 'un. I really think that Eddy did some of his best playing ever on this record." The theme of "The Earh Rolls On," which opens with the positively bouncing "Love Is So Sweet," is that life is hard, but worth it. Often accused by Texas singer-songwriter purists of overplaying, Eddy shows relative restraint here, finger-painting the moods of songs such as "Star of My Heart," which his father wrote in early 2000 while Eddy was in treatment for heroin addiction. At the end of the album, the guitarist finally cuts loose, breaking free from the past. The song, the album's title track, is about finding a light in the darkness of tragedy.

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