Blaze Foley is a great country songwriter from Austin who released precious little music before he was murdered in 1989. But his cult has grown steadily over the years, thanks in part to a series of posthumous releases like the essential Live at the Austin Outhouse from 1999. Now, he is the subject of a new biopic entitled Blaze, directed by fellow Austinite Ethan Hawke.
Foley made an impact on the musicians who knew and admired him, including his close friend Townes Van Zandt, country legend Merle Haggard (who covered Foley’s “If I Could Only Fly” in concert and as the title track of a 2000 album), and Lucinda Williams, who knew Foley in Austin and wrote the gorgeous Car Wheels on a Gravel Road album track “Drunken Angel” about him.
For the Blaze soundtrack, Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff contributed a rawboned acoustic cover of “Drunken Angel,” which you can hear below. For the hell of it, listen to the Austin Outhouse version of Foley’s signature song “Clay Pigeons” after that.
