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Jeremy Lynn Woodall, longtime lead guitarist for Waco country singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, will debut his tribute band Surrogate Son at Sunday’s Hometown Throwdown at The Backyard.
After some 15 years as lead guitarist in Billy Joe Shaver’s band, Jeremy Lynn Woodall found it hard to turn the page and move on after the Oct. 28, 2020, death of the acclaimed Waco country singer-songwriter and a close personal friend.
A plan to record and release a tribute album of Shaver’s songs, titled “Surrogate Son,” simmered on a back burner, but he couldn’t make progress on it. Stalled in what he would characterize as depression, Woodall wondered, “what would Billy do?” The answer that came resulted not in an album, but a band named Surrogate Son and a Sunday “Hometown Throwdown” tribute concert in Shaver’s memory.
“Billy was always saying, ‘I wish more people were doing my songs’ and he was like that until the end,” Woodall recalled. “I thought what would he be doing now and he’d be out there, playing his songs. And I think so, too: (Fans) need to hear his songs. I played 1,000, maybe 2,000 shows with Billy and he was always talking about having a ‘Hometown Throwdown.’”
To do just that, Woodall has assembled Surrogate Son, a foursome who knew Shaver, his music and how to play it: Woodall on lead vocals and guitar, David Doran on lead guitar, Chris Bourgeois on drums and David Hooper on bass.
Surrogate Son and the Hometown Throwdown will make a joint debut on Sunday at The Backyard, with fellow Waco musicians Gordon Collier, the Chris Low Band and J.D. Johnson joining them in a show of Shaver’s best-known and favorite songs, ones that shaped the outlaw country movement.
To get a sense of what the band might play, Woodall suggested what he and Shaver would tell musicians joining their band: Listen to “Live At Billy Bob’s: Billy Joe Shaver” as a practice tape.
The show will feature Shaver classics like “Honky Tonk Heroes,” “Live Forever,” “Georgia on a Fast Train” and more, but with a Woodall touch. “I do them a little bit differently than Billy did,” he said.
The guitarist expects other Shaver colleagues and fans to drop in for the concert, including some involved in raising funds for a commemorative statue of the Texas singer-songwriter in Corsicana, his birthplace. Sunday’s tribute comes two days before what would have been Shaver’s 83rd birthday and also follows the release of a new book, Courtney S. Lennon’s “Live Forever: The Songwriting Legacy of Billy Joe Shaver.”
With Surrogate Son, Gordon Collier, the Chris Low Band and J.D. Johnson
When, where: 6 p.m. Sunday at The Backyard, 511 S. Eighth St.
Tickets: $10 in advance at stubwire.com, $15 day of show.
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Carl Hoover has covered Waco arts and entertainment, and more, for the Tribune-Herald since 1984.
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Jeremy Lynn Woodall, longtime lead guitarist for Waco country singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, will debut his tribute band Surrogate Son at Sunday’s Hometown Throwdown at The Backyard.
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