When I Get My Wings/Gypsy Boy

by Billy Joe Shaver

Overview

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

Product Details

Release Date:	06/04/2021
Label:	France
UPC:	3250171019227
Rank:	122335

Tracks

1. Texas Uphere Tennessee
2. The Good Lord Knows I Tried
3. Ride Me Down Easy
4. When I Get My Wings
5. Ain't No God in Mexico
6. Love You Till the Cows Come Home
7. Woman Is the Wonder of the World
8. When the Word Was Thunderbird
9. America You Are My Woman
10. A Restless Wind
11. Evergreen
12. Billy B Damned
13. We Stayed Too Long at the Fair
14. Honky Tonk Heroes
15. I'm Going Crazy in ¿¿ Time
16. Gypsy Boy
17. Chicken on the Ground
18. Everything, Everwhere's
19. Slow Rollin' Low
20. Silver Wings of Time
21. The Believer
22. You Asked Me to

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Billy Joe Shaver   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Warren Barnett   Mastering
Billy Joe Shaver   Composer
Keith Glass   Liner Notes
Eddie Kilroy   Producer
Waylon Jennings   Composer
Rodney Crowell   Composer
Brian Ahern   Producer
Donivan Cowart   Composer
Bob Carpenter   Composer
Ian McFarlane   Release Preparation
Peter Shillito   Release Preparation
Kevin Mueller   Release Preparation
Steven Rhymer   Composer
Jack Duncan   Composer
Bob Johnson   Producer
Bobby Bare   Composer