Billy Joe Shaver

Billy Joe Shaver has never achieved the same level of fame as outlaw country peers like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, but his songs were a significant part of the movement and were widely covered by stars ranging from Johnny Cash to Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. A native Texan who lived the type of rough-and-tumble life that made his songs so appealing, Shaver was well into his thirties by the time he made his album debut. Eventually, 1973's Old Five and Dimers Like Me was known as a classic, but in the mid-'70s, songs like "Honky Tonk Heroes" and "Good Christian Soldier" were better known as hits for Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. Strong releases later in his career bolstered Shaver's reputation as one of America's great unsung songmen; it's one of the great ironies that 2014's excellent Long in the Tooth marked his debut on the Billboard Country Albums chart.