Margo Price & Joshua Hedley Co-Pilot Billy Joe Shaver‘s ‘Ragged Old Truck’

Margo Price and Joshua Hedley joined forces on a cover of Billy Joe Shaver‘s “Ragged Old Truck.” The collaboration comes from the all-star Live Forever: A Tribute to Billy Joe Shaver covers album.

New West Records will issue the compilation on November 11. The album features covers of 12 songs written by Billy Joe Shaver, the outlaw country singer-songwriter from Texas who died in 2020 at age 81. Previously shared tracks from the pending release include Willie Nelson and Lucinda Williams covering “I’m Gonna Live Forever,” George Strait’s rendition of “Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me” and Miranda Lambert’s take on “I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be A Diamond Someday).”

Others who recorded Billy Joe Shaver covers were Ryan Bingham & Nikki Lane, Rodney Crowell, Edie Brickell, Nathaniel Rateliff, Amanda Shires & Jason Isbell, Steve Earle and Allison Russell. Price detailed meeting Shaver, who lost two fingers in a lumber mill accident at a young age, explaining:

“I first met Billy in a dusty parking lot outside of Luck, Texas. I was drinking straight out of a bottle of Wild Turkey and he asked me for a pull. We talked for a long time about his songs. I told him my favorites were ‘Black Rose’ and ‘Ragged Old Truck’ and I said, that second one might have saved my life. I was in a deep depression when I first heard it and that song pulled me out. He put his hand, minus a few fingers, on my shoulder and said ‘Me too darlin, me too.’”

Stream Margo Price and Joshua Hedley’s cover of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Ragged Old Truck” below: