Raven's 2013 two-fer combines
Billy Joe Shaver's two albums for
Capricorn: 1976's
When I Get My Wings and 1977's
Gypsy Boy. These two records boast a slightly slicker, grander production than his dusty classic debut
Old Five and Dimers Like Me, a commercial gambit that didn't quite pay off and the records soon faded from the catalog, never being the easiest LPs to find on CD.
Bear Family released the two as a single CD called
Honky Tonk Heroes in 1994, supported by a couple of rarities, but that's harder to find than this
Raven two-fer, which adds three cuts from
Shaver's 1981
Columbia debut
I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal (that, along with the rest of his
Columbia recordings, were rounded up for
Real Gone's 2013 double-disc set
The Complete Columbia Recordings). From one angle, it could be argued that neither
When I Get My Wings nor
Gypsy Boy are as strong as
Old Five and Dimers or
I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal, primarily due to that big production, but to an extent that's just nitpicking: in retrospect that '70s studio slickness sounds appealing and
Shaver sounds wily, singing some of his greatest songs ("Ain't No God in Mexico," "When the Word Was Thunderbird," "Ride Me Down Easy," "Honky Tonk Heroes," "I'm Going Crazy in 3/4 Time," "You Asked Me To"). Certainly, any serious fan of country music, particularly in its progressive '70s incarnation, will find the renewed availability of these two
Shaver LPs reason to celebrate. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
