Known for his songwriting contributions to the outlaw-country canon and his larger-than-life personality, Billy Joe Shaver was revered by the giants of his genre. Born in 1939 in Corsicana, TX, Shaver began playing guitar in his early twenties after losing two fingers in a lumber-mill accident. He became a songwriter in Nashville in the ’60s, eventually finding favour with young artists like Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. The many Shaver compositions that found success include “I Been to Georgia On a Fast Train,” “Old Five and Dimers Like Me,” “Live Forever,” and “Honky Tonk Heroes.” Shaver recorded several of these on his 1973 debut, Old Five And Dimers Like Me, which failed to break him commercially as a soloist. Though he’s less storied than some of his contemporaries, his discography is full of honky-tonk gems of the highest order, including signature songs like 1981’s “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday).”