DAVE'S DIARY - 24 MARCH 2004 - BILLY JOE SHAVER
BILLY
JOE SHAVER GOES HOLLYWEIRD
NU COUNTRY COMPETES IN NASHVILLE
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Texan
troubadour and spiritual survivor Billy Joe Shaver has boomeranged
from deaths of his wife, son and mother and quadruple heart bypass
surgery to expand his booming acting career. And Shaver and The Kinkster also appeared in Nu Country - the Nick Brenner directed ABC TV documentary about the radio station that gave birth to Nu Country TV. |
The screening of Nu Country precedes Portrait Of Billy Joe
at 7 p m on Tuesday April 27 and 3 p m on Wednesday April 28.
"Thank you again for allowing us to present your wonderful film,
and please contact me if you have any questions," Nashville Film
Festival coordinator Mandy McBroom wrote to Brenner and Nu Country producer
Angela Borelli.
The 56 minute Portrait Of Billy Joe debuted at the South By Southwest
Film Festival in Austin on Saturday March 13 and enjoyed three screenings.
Shaver was running on one artery when he chanced his heart and soul on
the chauffeurial skills of Nu Country Guru David Dawson and promoter Rob
Hall on his tour with Kinky in February of 2002.
The singer delayed quadruple heart bypass surgery in Lone Star State capital
Austin until March to enable him to honour his Australian tour commitments.
And it enabled Friedman, 59, to gain material for new novels and home-spun
diplomacy for his run for Governor Of Texas - a position once enjoyed
by President George Dubya Bush who hosted The Kinkster at the White House.
| On their
return to Texas the duo released their Live From Down Under
CD on Kinky's partner and pianist Little Jewford's famed Sphincter
Record label. Former Nu Country treasurer John Karpik, whose tour pictures have appeared in organs diverse as Melbourne Herald Sun, Beat, Mixdown, People and Truth, shot the cover pix for the CD. Billy Joe has since released his fifth live album Try And Try Again for Houston based Compadre Records. His first live release - a cassette - was cut at the Corner Hotel in Richmond on his first Australian tour in 1989. |
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SHAVER CELLULOID SPEADS
When Shaver
landed at Tullamarine airport on Tuesday February 5, 2002, he was visibly
distressed after the gruelling flight from Dallas to Melbourne via Los
Angeles.
But the spirited survivor raised his hand, missing the tops of three fingers
from an historic sawmill accident, in a victory salute as the other pushed
a fully laden luggage trolley out of Immigration.
CLICK HERE for the Diaries of a Guru Chauffeur.
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Shaver,
born in Corsicana, appeared with Duval, Billy Bob Thornton and the
late June Carter Cash in The Apostle in 1997. Kinky Friedman and former Texas Jewboys pianist-hit maker Billy Swan also performed with Stanton at the now defunct Old Greek Theatre, Richmond, on their 1994 Australian tour. |
Missouri born Swan, writer of Clyde McPhatter smash hit Lover Please at 16 and topping charts with I Can Help, and renowned for dropping his artificial eye in glasses of beer as a party trick, was the musical director for Stanton.
But that's another story.
THE APOSTLE AND BRENDA SHAVER
At The
Apostle cast party Shaver played The First And Last Time, a
song about his late wife, Brenda, whom he married three times.
Pedraza was enthralled with his raw emotion and mystery. And though she
had never made a film, she was compelled to pick up a camera.
"I was just moved immensely by him," she said. "I thought,
'what else is behind this song? What man would write something like this?"
Billy Joe was surprised when Pedraza approached him about doing the documentary.
"I didn't think anybody actually knew I was worth messing with, but
she did," Shaver said with a chuckle. "I give her a lot of credit.
She really honed in on it and went all over Texas."
Pedraza, who grew up in Argentina, met Shaver when Duvall cast him in
The Apostle.
"I'd seen him play when I was doing Lonesome Dove (the Larry
McMurtry penned book and mini-series) down in Austin and met him briefly,"
Duvall said.
"So I sent him the script, and he sent a tape back. He was so natural,
like he'd been doing it all his life. Not all country singers make good
actors, but he has something special."
MABEL
ABLE AT 102
Unlike many doccos, Portrait Of Billy Joe doesn't rely on a variety
of interviews and voices to tell the story.
Pedraza filmed Shaver in a variety of settings: relatives' homes, clubs
and churches such as the nearby, non-denominational River Of Life Church.
She also tracked down 102-year-old Mabel Legg, a teacher who encouraged
a teenaged Shaver's budding writing talent.
Sadly, Legg died shortly after she was interviewed.
Legg recognised a writing talent in her young student and encouraged him
to follow his muse.
She even recited some of his poems from memory, a half century after he
had written them.
But besides Legg, Pedraza focused squarely on Shaver, letting him tell
his own story - one that is full of heartbreak.
He is candid about his drug and alcohol abuse, calling himself The King
Of Sinners in a scene during a visit to a rural church. He is also gut-wrenchingly
raw when standing in his kitchen talking about his late wife and son.
Brenda Tindell Shaver lost her two-year battle with cancer in 1999.
Guitar wizard, band mate and son Eddy toured here with Shaver when they
supported Willie Nelson and the late Waylon Jennings on their 1994 Aussie
sojourn.
But Eddie, who made five albums with his dad as Shaver and a solo disc
Baptism Of Fire in 1996, died at 38 from a drug overdose on New
Year's Eve 2000.
Billy Joe also lost his mother Victory during that same period.
"Usually when you see someone mistreated in life, they can get mean,"
Pedraza said. "But Billy Joe is such a kind man, so generous. You
don't find people like that every day, and that's pretty much what I tried
to tell in this documentary - that people shouldn't give up."
Shaver's willingness to talk about his problems with drink and drugs,
stormy yet enduring relationship with Brenda, whom he married three times,
his love and partnership with son Eddy and the pain of dealing with Brenda's
and Eddy's deaths impressed Pedraza.
"I'm happy that Billy Joe was so generous to share all those private
stories," she said.
The filmmaker says Shaver's ability to persevere through his difficulties,
aided in large part through his strong Christian faith, should inspire
others to take heart.
Shaver credits his re-born Christian faith for getting him through that
tough year. Talking about the dark times on camera was a kind of therapy.
"It was hard in a way, but in a way it wasn't because I knew it would
eternally be out, and it would be documented and over," he said.
"I hope the audience sees a lot of themselves in it because I'm like
a whole lot of people. I may not be on the charts, but when people hear
my songs, they understand them."
"She and Bobby (Duvall) know me better than I do. They see me in
a different light than I do, and it's a good one, too."
LUKE WILSON FINDS APOSTLE
Wilson, a fellow Texan and traditional country fan, heard Shaver's music
growing up in Dallas, but he didn't make the connection when he saw the
singer in The Apostle.
"I thought, 'Who is that guy?' He was so good and had so much quiet
charisma to me," Wilson said.
"When I found out it was Billy Joe, I had dinner with him one time
in Austin. He's just somebody I'm so interested in, and it's been nice
to get to know him."
Wilson - who also appears in The Wendell Baker Story with his brother,
current Starsky & Hutch star Owen Wilson - says he knew Shaver would
be perfect for part of Reverend Shackleton, a resident in a retirement
home that Wilson's character operates after being released from prison.
"Billy Joe's got a knack for getting a point across or getting the
feeling of the scene across," Wilson explained.
"We made his character bigger and bigger and had him around more
just because he did such a good job."
Wilson also said he drew inspiration from Shaver's salt-of-the-earth persona,
something he doesn't see a lot in Hollywood, where he now lives.
"When I'm around him, it really makes me think about being a good,
strong person," he said. "There's just no bitterness there.
There's real strength and humor. I just look up to him."
And Wilson hopes the film will introduce the audience to Shaver's timeless
music.
One scene includes Shaver's character singing his classic tune Live
Forever.
"I really think of him as a poet," Wilson said.
"I've gone back and found earlier albums like Tramp On Your Street
or Old Five & Dimers or more recent ones like Victory,
and I've played them for people, and it's funny to see them be like, 'Wow,
who is this guy?' I so rarely do that because I figure my tastes are my
own, but whenever I give somebody one of his albums, they always love
it."
The Wendell Baker Story is being edited for a possible release
in our spring.
ACTING FUTURE
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Whether
Shaver will continue to grow his acting resume remains to be seen.
Both Wilson and Duvall say he's got the chops. Shaver says acting is "a whole lot easier" than making music, but music is still his first love. The muse is still with him. "I'll bop 'til I drop I guess," Shaver says. "We're still driving a van and pulling a U-Haul trailer, but everybody enjoys listening to us, and we enjoy playing for them." |
Duvall directed
Pedrazzi's film-acting debut in last year's The Assassination Tango
and encouraged her to try documentary film-making.
The Waco musician said he found traveling with Pedraza and Duvall a delight.
"There was always something happening. Robert, he's constantly being
Gus (the crusty, beloved ex-Ranger in Lonesome Dove) and he's a Christian,
too," Shaver said. "I enjoyed the different places we went and
restaurants never let him pay for nothing. That was fun."
Shaver said making the documentary helped him tone down his self-criticism.
"I've got a little more self-respect now," he said. "I'm
my own self-critic . . . I'm the critic who says I can do better."
And that includes performing live with Kid Rock who worked and recorded
with Billy Joe's fellow outlaws Hank Williams Jr and seven times wed former
convict singer and actor David Allan Coe.
Shaver says Kid Rock will produce his next album - his sequel to Try And
Try Again on Compadre. The two met through Coe.
CLICK HERE for Nu Country Guru Dawson's
Diary of his chauffeurial role for Billy Joe and Kinky.
Further info about Nu Country, Portrait Of Billy Joe and Grand
Theft Parsons films - www.nashvillefilmfestival.org