Blaze Foley

An indelible presence on the Austin singer-songwriter circuit of the '70s and '80s, Blaze Foley possessed a disheveled magneticism and a deep, sonorous vocal style--characterized by a phrasing as spacious as the West Texas stretch of Interstate 10. Counting both Townes Van Zandt and Lucinda Williams (whose "Drunken Angel" is an acknowledged tribute to the man) among his fans and cohorts, he penned both lovelorn ballads and political polemics with equal acuity. Couch surfing and mending his clothes with duct tape, Foley gave himself wholly to the starving artist's lifestyle. A brilliant set at the Outhouse in Austin remains one of his few recorded legacies, but he found validation when Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson covered his "If I Could Only Fly." Foley was shot and killed in 1989.