I shoot praises for a perfect vinyl-only album that has just been sent to me, BLAZE FOLEY’s Clay Pigeons. I had never heard of him or his work before, but Greg Gardner of Secret Seven Records knows my taste and kindly sent me a pre-release copy. It really is spine-chilling and I recommend to all who are haunted. Some of the label’s promotional text is copied below. It can be ordered here: www.secretsevenrecords.typepad.com.
“He is one of the most spiritual cats I’ve ever met; an ace finger-picker; a writer who never shirks the truth; never fails to rhyme; and one of the flashiest wits I’ve ever had to put up with. He’s only gone crazy once. Decided to stay. But the main thing is the music. Blaze is a lover of things alive, and pleads their cause with every word. I am proud to call Blaze my friend” – Townes Van Zandt, 1984
“Blaze Foley was a genius and a beautiful loser” – Lucinda Williams
As is often the case with artists whose legacies have been shaped by tragic circumstances, in some ways the music of Blaze Foley cannot be divorced from his personal story. Born Michael David Fuller in 1949, he spent his formative years traveling the South with his family as a group of itinerant Gospel singers. By 1974, he had begun to develop his persona as a songwriter, first as ‘Depty Dawg’, and finally, in 1977, as ‘Blaze Foley’. Blaze’s brief career was characterized by equal measures of prolificacy, poor luck, and personal misfortune. Despite his friendship with fellow Texas outlaw country stalwart, Townes Van Zandt, success eluded Foley at all turns. Albums were recorded, lost, found, and lost again. Troubled both by substance abuse and homelessness, Foley struggled to commit many of his songs to tape, and those that were recorded rarely received proper releases during his lifetime—save a lone 45rpm. An LP was pressed in 1984, but allegedly, the album was seized by the FBI when the owner of the record label was arrested for drug smuggling. Blaze finally received some of the LPs, which he sold from the back of his truck. Blaze’s life ended tragically in 1989 when he was fatally gunned down while intervening in a family feud on the behalf of an elderly and defenseless friend.
Despite the obscurity that plagued his career his talent was acknowledged and celebrated by his more successful peers both during his life and after his passing. Notables such as Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, John Prine, and Lyle Lovett have covered Foley’s songs. Additionally,Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda Williams have immortalized Foley with tribute songs written in his honor. There is also a biography, Living In The Woods In A Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley, by Sybil Rosen that chronicles Blaze’s life and concentrates on his early songwriting days when he was living with Sybil in a treehouse in rural Georgia. There is also a documentary film, Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah. Yet despite any accolade that could be used to measure Foley’s importance, nothing comes close to hearing him sing his own songs.
