Tapes and CDs from country singer Blaze Foley's last studio recordings were thought to have been destroyed in a fire or lost by band members. That was until one CD was found in someone's car.
"Wanted More Dead Than Alive" goes on sale at Waterloo Records Oct. 11 or online at waddellhollowrecords.com.
"Hey, whatever happened to that country album Blaze had recorded?" Someone asked that after the funeral and the question would pop up occasionally through the years.
A few months before he was shot to death on Feb. 1, 1989, Blaze Foley and a band composed of steel player Charlie Day and the Waddell brothers, bassist David and drummer Leland, recorded 10 tracks at the Bee Creek Studio in Driftwood. With Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard having just released their version of Foley's "If I Could Only Fly" weeks earlier, Foley had been in high spirits during the sessions, which were supposed to continue after two days of recording basic tracks live.
But after the studio hadn't been paid, the project was put on hold, a status that became permanent when 39-year-old Foley was killed by the son of a friend. (To the disgust of many fans, Foley's killer was found not guilty by reason of self-defense.)
Whatever happened to Foley's final studio work? The word was that the tapes were destroyed in a fire and the rough mix cassettes (and subsequent burned CDs) given to band members couldn't be found.
Foley just couldn't get a break when it came to studio albums. His supposed breakout LP, recorded in Muscle Shoals, Ala., in 1983, was confiscated by Drug Enforcement Administration agents after the project backer went down in a drug bust. Foley had only a box of the albums, which he would barter for beers and cab rides until they were all gone.
An earlier album, produced by Gurf Morlix, never came out when the masters were stolen from a car Foley had borrowed.
The Bee Creek sessions seemed destined for a similar fate until July 2005 when Leland Waddell received a call from an old friend in Indiana. The guy said he'd been cleaning out his car and found an unmarked CD. He played it to see if it contained anything, and he thought it sounded like Foley. Excitedly, Waddell asked the friend to overnight the disc and, sure enough, it was the rough mixes of those 1988 sessions. Problem was, the CD was barely listenable, the music buried under so much surface noise and crackling. But under the muck, Waddell could hear the magic.
He took the disc to sound engineer John Sheppard, a Pro Tools wiz who spent weeks cleaning up the tracks until, Waddell says, "it sounds just like I remember the sessions sounding."
Preserved on the album soon to be releasedwere not only a sweet, stirring version of "If I Could Only Fly," with Kimmie Rhodes on backing vocals, and a great take of "Clay Pigeons," recently covered by Foley's songwriting idol John Prine, but two songs thought to be lost forever ‹ Calvin Russell's "Life Of a Texas Man" and Jubal Clark's "Black Granite." Foley's tombstone was made of black granite because of the Clark composition, which Foley often sang live.
"This is really the true Blaze Foley studio album," Waddell says. "The Muscle Shoals record was pretty good, but it wasn't really Blaze. He was backed by studio guys (plus Morlix on bass) who just saw it as another gig. We knew Blaze inside and out and went into that studio with the idea that we'd get the real Blaze down on tape."
As for the title, "Wanted More Dead Than Alive," Waddell says it was inspired by the way his friend has found more success in death in recent years than in life, with Haggard, Prine, Lyle Lovett and others recording tunes by Foley, the subject of Lucinda Williams' "Drunken Angel."
And now, more than 16 years after his passing, Foley has mysteriously reappeared to lay claim to those songs.
The SPIN party at Stubb's featured the Raveonettes and Vampire Weekend on March 14, 2008.; 360topvideo; Music; Patrick Beach catches Daniel Lanois on the streets during SXSW.; Music; Alex Cuba performs at Copa on March 13, 2008.; Music; Deborah Sengupta Stith, austin360.com music writer, talks with British delegates at the British Music Embassy on San Jacinto, March 13, 2008.; 360topvideo; Music; Lyle Lovett performed "The Songs of Walter Hyatt" and presented Hyatt's family with an award as part of the 26th Annual Austin Music Awards on March 12, 2008 at the Austin Music Hall where Andy Langer was emcee.; Music; The Levi's Fader Fort on E. 4th invited a number of bands, including Yo La Tengo to perform at their Lou Reed tribute on March 13, 2008.; Music; Austin360 music writer Deborah Sengupta Stith interviews online celebrity Perez Hilton before his SXSW party at the Palm Door. 3.15.08.; 360topvideo; Music; Austin360.com's Deborah Sengupta shared a few moments with New York's Electric Bhangra DJ, DJ Rekha who performed at Club 115 on March 13, 2008.; Music; Lou Reed showed up to the SXSW screening of the documentary "Lou Reed's Berlin" at the Paramount Theater on March 13, 2008. Jenni Jones AMERICAN-STATESMAN; events; Austin360 music writer Deborah Sengupta Stith talks to rap artist David Banner at the Fader/Levi's SXSW side party at SXSW 2008. 3.15.08 (Interview footage by Terrence Stith.); Music; Austin's own Grupo Fantasma plays the Batanga Day Party at Habana Calle Sies Restaurant.; Music; Austinite Hector Ward and the Big Time and Tat from England play on day four of the SXSW music festival.; Music; Slab City brings "Torta Rock" to Beerland from Imperial City, California.; Music; There's plenty of SXSW music on South Congress. Best of all, most of it is free.; 360topvideo; Music; I was too intrigued to pass up the Valentine's Day Massacre known as the Mini KISS concert Feb. 14, 2008 at Speakeasy.; Music; Stephen Dean has photographed and logged hundreds of Central Texas dance halls. He discusses the history of dance halls and shares his thoughts about what the future holds for the remaining halls.; Music; The Music Lab gears up for the South by Southwest Music Festival.; Music; Austin360's Matthew Odam a.k.a. The M.O. wraps up day one of ACL Fest.; Music; Welcome to ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Fire broke out in the concessions area on day one of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Amos Lee performs live on day 3 of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Arctic Monkeys perform live on day 2 of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Ben Kweller performs live on day 3 of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Bloc Party performs live on day 3 of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Blonde Redhead performing live on day one of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Damien Rice performs live on day 2 of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Indigo Girls perform live on day 2 of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; LCD Soundsystem performs live on day one of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Lucinda Williams performs live on day 3 of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; M.I.A. performing live at ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Peter Bjorn and John performing live on day one of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Raul Malo performs live on day two of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Regina Spektor performs live on day 3 of at ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Spoon performing live on day one of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; Zap Mama performs live on day 2 of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; 09.15.06 ACL - Day 1 recap; Music; 09.15.06 - ACL: Ray LaMontagne; Music; 09.15.06 ACL: Recycle for a free t-shirt; Music; Austin City Limits 2006, Day 1; Music; 09.16.06 ACL: Austin Kiddie Limits; Music; Clap Your Hands Say Yeah performs live on day 2 of ACL Fest 2007.; Music; One of the bands Reed had said earlier was one of the current groups he likes, Dr. Dog played the Lou Reed tribute at the Fader Fort on March 13, 2008.; Music; Kentucky rockers My Morning Jacket took the stage at the Fader Fort on March 13, 2008, after being introduced as 'one of the best live bands in America.'; Music; So many bands, so little time. Here are just a handful of bands that had shows on Thursday evening in the Sixth Street area.; Music;
