Lucy Dacus shares cover of Blaze Foley’s "Clay Pigeons" for new tribute compilation

Dacus first encountered the song six years ago through a friend. “On first listen I was like, ‘This is one of the best songs ever written’,” she said. She points to the lyrics' deliberate ambiguity as a key part of its pull. “Something I like about it is you can’t tell if he’s giving up and running away from a life or if he’s trying really hard to find a new life. I guess a lot of travelling puts you in between those goals.” She added: “I hope anyone that hears my version will end up going back to the source material.”

The compilation draws its material from Foley’s mid-1970s demos, originally released by Lost Art Records in 2010 as Sittin’ by the Road. Dacus appears alongside a roll call of Americana and leftfield songwriters, including Phosphorescent, Willie Watson, Cactus Lee, Dylan Earl, Uncle Lucius, Riley Downing, Joshua Ray Walker, Twain, Angela Autumn, John R. Miller, John Moreland, and Lucinda Williams. Williams, who once described her old Austin running mate as a “beautiful loser,” contributes a version of "If I Could Only Fly" - a song she recorded memorably on her own World Without Tears album and one that remains tightly linked to Foley’s legacy.

Foley was murdered in 1989 at the age of 39, known then only among a small circle of renegade Austin players. In the decades since, his songs have been taken up by John Prine, Merle Haggard, Lyle Lovett, Billy Strings, and Willie Nelson, with both Townes Van Zandt and Williams writing tributes to him. Liner notes for the new set come from Texas writer Joe Nick Patoski, who argues that Foley’s work has only gained weight. “The songs Blaze created resonate and ring truer than ever,” Patoski writes. “The hallmark of a great song is outliving its author. In Blaze’s case, there’s a whole catalogue of songs like that.”