But, y’know, if you’re looking for a petition to sign, I couldn’t recommend one more than this. It’s to induct Townes Van Zandt into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

If you haven’t listened to Townes Van Zandt, try starting here.

Here’s the recipe, taken from Food.com.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb white beans, rinsed
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon chicken base
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 6 -8 cloves garlic, minced
• 7 ounces diced green chilies
• 4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
• 4 cups diced cooked chicken
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 cups shredded monterey jack cheese
• sour cream, to serve
• chopped green onion, to serve
• chopped cilantro, to serve
• chopped tomato, to serve

Directions

1. Put the chicken stock base, broth, and beans in a large pot.
2. Simmer it for two hours, covered.
3. Saute the onions in the oil until they are gently browned.
4. Combine the onions with the spices, chicken, and other vegetables, and simmer for another hour or so.
5. Add the cheese and sour cream, cooking until the cheese melts in the chili.
6. Serve the chili with more sour cream, green onions, diced tomatoes, salsa, cilantro, and/or cheese.

Here’s a lousy picture of the result:

For the record, my piss-poor photography skills aside, it was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

Update: Speaking of Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt — and I’m always speaking of Townes Van Zandt, no matter what else it might sound like I’m speaking of — I didn’t know this existed:

I’m thinking it had to have been recorded after Townes died? At least his vocal sounds an awful lot like it does on No Deeper Blue.

Update II: Some people have been nice enough to get in contact with me lately and tell me what they thought of Pike. Everybody talks about it being dark, which seems right objectively, but I always have trouble explaining that it didn’t seem dark when I wrote it.

It always makes me think of that moment in the Townes Van Zandt documentary Be Here to Love Me when someone asks him why his songs are so sad.

“They’re not all sad,” he answers. “Some of ’em are hopeless.”

Shaver still faces a charge of unlawful carrying of a handgun by a license holder for bringing his gun to Papa Joe’s Texas Saloon the night of the shooting.

Earlier in the day, Shaver testified that he feared for his life when he shot Coker in the upper lip on the back patio of the bar in Lorena, just south of Waco, with a .22-caliber pistol that was smaller than the palm of his hand.

Shaver said he was nervous after Coker brandished a knife in the bar and then asked him to step outside.

“I wanted to scare him … wanted to beat him to the punch. \u2026 I feared he was going to kill me,” Shaver said.

During cross-examination, prosecutor Beth Toben tried to use Shaver’s outlaw image against him.

She suggested that he could have just left the bar if he had felt so intimidated.

That would have been “chicken shit,” Shaver replied.

Toben asked whether Shaver was jealous that Coker at the time was talking to Shaver’s wife, Wanda.

“I get more women than a passenger train can haul. I’m not jealous,” Shaver said.

During her final argument, Toben noted that several witnesses, including Coker, said Shaver fired without provocation. She also suggested he shot because he was angry that Coker told him to shut up earlier in the night.

“He may be a honky-tonk hero,” referring to the title of Shaver’s autobiography, “and he may have written a lot of wonderful songs, … but on that day, he was a honky-tonk bully.”

Perhaps the most critical testimony came from Daniel Silvas, who said he saw the shooting from his truck after he pulled into the bar.

Silvas said he saw a quarrel between two men, one of whom he later learned was Shaver. The other man then went at Shaver with a knife as Shaver backed away, Silvas said.

“To me it looked like (Shaver) was just trying to … to get away” before firing, Silvas said.

The rest.

Billy Joe Shaver’s songs inaugurated the Outlaw Country movement. In my mind, he’s up there on that top short list of songwriters with Townes Van Zandt and very few others.

He’s so good, in fact, that even Big & Rich can’t fuck up his songs.

Pancho And Lefty

Buckskin Stallion

Catfish Song

No Place To Fall

Snowing On Raton

Rake

No Lonesome Tune

Nothin’

You Are Not Needed Now

If I Needed You

Mr. Mudd And Mr. Gold

Tecumseh Valley

I’ll Be Here In The Morning

After all, an Earle quote that he now regrets — “Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world, and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that” — is one reason why the adjective legendary clings to Van Zandt.

Why the hell’s he regret it? It’s one of my favorite quotes.

Just got the album, by the way. And it’s fucking great.