Billy Joe Shaver’s been thinking about making a spiritual album for a long time, but like everything in his life, he approaches spirituality on his own terms. “Somebody called this album ‘honky tonk Gospel,’” Shaver says chuckling. “I kinda like that.” The last few years have been rough on Shaver. His mother, wife and son Eddy all died within a year’s time. Then he suffered a massive heart attack, but he recovered and was soon back on the road, his characteristic optimism intact. “When I started working on this album, I pulled out a lot of old songs and started changing ‘em. Most of ‘em are heavy – there’s some strong medicine here.”

Texas isn’t for cowards. Neither is it suited to musicians who cannot hear equally well what big cities like Houston and small burgs like Wink have to tell them. Singer-songwriter Ryan James hears all the refrains and refines them to his purpose. He’s got a way to fill a bare-bones verse with a kind of deluxe longing that is plaintive and respectful and pleading and pleasurable, all at the same time. Ryan James takes on traditional country strains but filters them through the heart of a guy who realizes he isn’t solving the world’s problems because it’s hard enough to just talk about his own.

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