+ Twelve recordings from the 70’s & 80’s available on VINYL for the first time
+ Features Blaze’s own versions of songs that were covered by Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett & John Prine
+ Liner notes by Blaze Foley biographer, Sybil Rosen; Cover photo by C.P. Vaughan
+ 500 copies pressed
“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
"Foley wrote and sang story songs so vividly full of ache, sadness, reflection, and the naked truth that I believe he may have attained that level of direct realism that songsmiths such as Kristofferson, Dylan, and Haggard are always trying to reach . . .” -- Joe Nick Patoski, Texas Monthly
Secret Seven Records is proud to present Blaze Foley: Clay Pigeons, a (vinyl-only) career-spanning collection of studio, home and intimate live recordings from 1976 - 1988. Culled from posthumous CDs released by Lost Art Records and Fat Possum, Clay Pigeons marks the first-ever proper LP release by one of country music’s most beautiful, yet oft unheard, voices. Featuring many of Blaze’s best loved songs including: “Oval Room,” “Clay Pigeons,” and “If I Could Only Fly”—a song Merle Haggard described as “the best country song I’ve heard in 15 years.”
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 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 traded for beer and cab rides. 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.
Side One: Clay Pigeons / You’ll Get Yours Aplenty / Election Day / Lovin’ You / For Anything Less / Oval Room
Side Two: Cold, Cold World / Down Here Where I Am / Moonlight / Rainbows & Ridges / My Reasons Why / If I Could Only Fly
Listen to: Clay Pigeons
OUT OF STOCK
A limited quantity of this LP will be available at the record release/tribute show at Amnesia in San Francisco on January 26th. Featuring performances by Grace Sings Sludge (Grace Cooper of The Sandwitches), Paula Frazer, Will Sprott (of The Mumlers), Conspiracy Of Beards, Big Mountain City (with members of Two Gallants & Trainwreck Riders), and Joseph Childress.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Purchase Sybil Rosen's book, Living In The Woods In A Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley here
To purchase other Blaze Foley albums on CD go to Lost Art Records & Fat Possum
Visit cover photographer, C.P Vaughan's website
Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah documentary website
