Victory

A hard-bitten Texas native Billy Joe Shaver is perhaps best known for his songwriting and as a man who has lived most of the songs he has written. Since the beginning of this decade he has worked with his son Eddie, as Shaver, their debut album Tramp On Your Street mating the tough, honest writing of Billy Joe with Eddie's hard rock guitar. This trend continued, to varying degrees, on the next two Shaver albums, the live Unshaven, and the more acoustic Highway Of Life. Now they have released Victory a stripped down collection that features just voice and guitar, and Billy Joe's post-rebel raising meditations on faith and God.

It opens with the unaccompanied 'Sons Of Calvary' and from the outset you know this is a voice you can believe in: it may not be pretty or technically brilliant but it is real and true.

Aside from re-runs of old favourites like 'If I Give My Soul', 'Old Five' and 'Diners', the new material is self-explanatory, with 'You Can't Beat Jesus Christ' and 'Christian Soldier' among the stand-outs. These songs are modern-day spirituals written by a man who has come to terms with his life, a man who seems to have reached a place he's been trying to get to for 20 years.

But if this sounds like it might be a preachy, middle-of-the-road, bland-out, forget it. Even in its raw state, this is hard, direct and vital acoustic music. Billy Joe's appearance in Robert Duvall's movie The Apostle has brought his name to a wider audience - and not before time. Whether it be solo recordings or his work with Shaver, the man is well worth searching out and Victory, his most intimate album to date is as good a place as any to start.