Blaze Foley

Blaze Foley (born December 18, 1949 in Malvern, Arkansas; died February 1, 1989 in Austin, Texas) was an American singer-songwriter.

Biography

Foley grew up in Texas. He performed in a gospel band called The Fuller Family with his mother and sisters. After leaving home, he performed in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston and finally Austin, Texas, where even in this city of non-conformists his unusual character was noticed. He slept on friend's couches or under pool-tables in bars. He made the "Austin Outhouse" his home. He was close friends with another Texas legend, Townes Van Zandt.

His song "If I Could Only Fly" became a hit in the interpretation of Merle Haggard. His song "Election Day" was covered by Lyle Lovett on his 2003 album "My Baby Don't Tolerate" and his song "Clay Pigeons" was covered by John Prine on his Grammy Award winning 2005 album "Fair and Square."

In 1989, Foley was shot to death while helping his friend Concho January defend himself from his violent son Carey January. Carey January was acquitted of murder in the first degree by reason of self-defense. Friends of Foley were outraged at the verdict.

Blaze Foley jokingly claimed to be the illegitimate son of Red Foley and Blaze Starr.

Blaze had a love affair with duct tape. Initially he placed duct tape on the tips of his cowboy boots to mock the "Urban Cowboy" crazed folks with their silver tipped cowboy boots. This love of duct tape grew until he'd made a suit out of duct tape that he used to walk around in. At his funeral, his casket was coated with duct tape by his friends. Townes Van Zandt was quoted as saying that "he'd have to dig Blaze up to get the pawn ticket for his guitar that was in his pocket".

Music and lyrics

The very emotional songs Foley wrote were marked by honesty. They were about all things in life, from love songs to sharp political commentary. Because of the latter one of his master tapes is rumored to have been confiscated by the FBI (or the DEA).

Foley worked among others with Townes Van Zandt and Calvin Russell.

The song "Drunken Angel" by Lucinda Williams, which appears on her 1998 album "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road", is a tribute to Foley.

Quotes

About Foley

* "He's only gone crazy once. Decided to stay." - Townes Van Zandt
* "Blaze Foley was a genius and a beautiful loser." - Lucinda Williams

Discography

There was one vinyl LP out during Blaze's lifetime. It was titled "Blaze Foley"on the Vital label. It has been said the FBI has the master to the recording.It was ten years after his death when other recordings by Blaze Foley werefinally made available.

*"Live At the Austin Outhouse" (Lost Art Records) 1999
*"Oval Room" (Lost Art Records) 2004, (Munic/Indigo) 2005
*"Wanted More Dead Than Alive" (Waddell Hollow Records) 2005
*"Blaze Foley and the Beaver Valley Boys" (Lost Art Records) 2006

Tributes

Shortly after Foley's death, a group of friends came together to record his songs for a cassette tape, so that his songs would not be forgotten and changed (since no other recordings were available following his death). The cassette was finally released as a CD in 1998 and by then enough material had been recorded for a second and third tribute CD, effectively cataloging his known works (or known at that time; since then, a number of additional songs have surfaced, recorded in studios, living rooms and back porches). A fourth tribute CD was released in 2002 with songs written for, by and about Blaze Foley.
*"In Memory and Loving Tribute...Volume One", (Deep South Productions) 1998
*"BFI Too: Blaze Ablaze", (Deep South Productions) 1999
*"Blaze Foley Inside", (Deep South Productions) 2000
*"Songs for Blaze, a Friend of Ours", (Deep South Productions)

External links

*"Living In The Woods In A Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley" by Sybil Rosen available at Amazon.com
*www.myspace.com/texasghostwritersmusic Official Myspace Page
* [http://www.blazefoley.net/ blazefoley.info] Official Site
* [http://home.earthlink.net/~stewells/ home.earthlink.net] Fan Site
* [http://www.waddellhollowrecords.com/main.html waddellhollowrecords.com] Two MP3-Downloads
* [http://www.deepsouthaustin.com Tribute project]
* [http://www.lostartrecords.com lostartrecords.com] Two MP3-Downloads