Foto: © C.P. Vaughn - All Rights Reserved
Foto: © C.P. Vaughn - All Rights Reserved
The book on Facebook: @BFI-Germany

Blaze Foley - From Misfit to Legend

Poet - Songwriter - Musician (1949-1989)

This book tells the tragic story of a singer-songwriter who was a part of the Austin, Texas music scene in the 1980s. Townes van Zandt, Gurf Morlix, Lucinda Williams and Calvin Russell – to name but a few – were his friends. Unfortunately, he never released an album while he was alive – the master tapes to his first album were stolen from his car, the ones from his second album were confiscated by the FBI and when he tried recording an album for the third time, the tapes got lost in the recording studio. Ten years after his death, some of those recordings were found and released.

And yet, Blaze Foley has achieved the status of a legend. He was a complicated character, an outsider, often homeless. He crashed on the couches of friends until they kicked him out, or he slept beneath pool tables in clubs and bars. He never held down a regular job since he wanted to dedicate his life to music. Duct tape became his trademark, on his clothes, his boots and everywhere.
He had a wealth of empathy for the downtrodden, for the poor, for those living on the fringes of society, just like him. He hated injustice and witnessing it made him very angry. It was exactly this desire to stand up against injustice and to help the helpless which led to his demise. He was killed by a gunshot on February 1, 1989.


People can become legends only if their memory is kept alive.

  • Blaze’s friends honored his legacy with four tribute albums.
  • Kevin Triplett made a documentary film about him entitled “Duct Tape Messiah.”
  • Gurf Morlix recorded an album of Blaze Foley’s songs.
  • Sybil Rosen writes about her life with Blaze in her book “Living in the Woods in a Tree.”
  • Ethan Hawke’s movie “Blaze” had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah on January 21, 2018.


Blaze Foley (Michael David Fuller)

December 18, 1949 in Malvern, Arkansas – February 1, 1989 in Austin, Texas

This book was put together in memory of Blaze Foley, a singer-songwriter whose life ended in tragedy. More than 30 years after his passing, his songs have lost none of their quality, charm and relevance.

Unfortunately, we have never had the pleasure of meeting him or seeing him in concert. We only became aware of his music long after his passing.

We are not aiming to rewrite history. This book is a collection of articles originally published elsewhere, texts we commissioned specifically for this book and texts we wrote ourselves – from interviews we conducted with Blaze’s friends, companions, fellow musicians and people who knew him well. Some of them we met in person, some of them sent their accounts via email, some we talked to on the phone.

We hope you enjoy this book and we hope it makes you want to listen to Blaze’s music.

Love & Peace
Carmen und Kai Nees

Content
- The Fall and Rise of Blaze Foley
- Publications about Blaze Foley’s Beginnings
- Publications about Blaze‘s Death and the Following Trial
- Publications about Blaze‘s Afterlife
- Blaze Foley‘s Music
- Deep South Productions
- Lost Art Records
- Documentary „Blaze Foley – Duct Tape Messiah“
- Living in the Woods in a Tree
- Chuck Lamb and the Austin Outhouse
- Remembering Blaze
- Ambassadors for Blaze
- Ezalb Yelof‘s Marker Art
- Live Oak Cemetery

About this book

Blaze Foley The first time we encountered Blaze was unspectacular. We caught a video of Townes van Zandt singing “Snowing On Raton” in duet with a man with a mustache. We had never heard of Blaze Foley and became curious about him. We found out he had died tragically in 1989. We also realized that information about him was hard to come by in Germany. Very few people we talked to had ever heard of him.

On the internet we found some more information and got in touch with some of his old friends and cohorts. One of them was John Casner who granted us access to his considerable digital archive of all things Blaze.
Over time we collected a sizable number of articles and texts about Blaze ourselves – many of them reiterating the same content. The more we learned about Blaze, the more we wanted to know. His music and his life were spellbinding. We obtained all available original and tribute albums and thus discovered and encountered his songs in many different versions.
After we had collected a lot of material on Blaze, we decided to keep his memory alive in Germany. From then on, Blaze “moved in” with us and became a part of our daily lives. It seems like he still has the power to mesmerize people.
When we heard that Barbara K and David Waddell, old friends of Blaze’s, were both living in Germany, we got in touch with them. We met them and they told us lots of stories about him. This was incredibly thrilling because up until then, we had gained our only knowledge from articles and press clippings. This was the first-time we received first-hand information.
Subsequently, we got in touch with many more people from Blaze’s orbit and everybody had their stories and anecdotes to share. We were particularly impressed with what Kevin Triplett told us about the making of his film documentary “Duct Tape Messiah”. We recognized our own struggles in many of the experiences Kevin had made. This was an eventful time for us in which we met many people. We were very moved by their support and their desire to help us in our pursuit. After the German version of the book was published, we received many requests for an English-language version. We also heard from some of Blaze’s friends we had not been able to get in touch with before. A renewed interest in his life was also piqued by Ethan Hawke’s movie. So we went ahead with an English version of the book which is not merely a translation - it also contains new material not included in the first German-language edition.
It is a beautiful feeling that Blaze’s music connects people across continents and decades.
In our search for Blaze we realized that people will only become legends if other people remember them and remind us of them.

We regret that we never had a chance to meet Blaze in person.

Carmen und Kai Nees Carmen and Kai Nees

Bulletin Board

Blaze Foley - Tribute

Gestern Abend durften wir den Besuchern des „Felsenkeller am Zauberberg“ in Kelkheim Blaze Foley vorstellen. Phil Douglas hat zwischen unserer Erzählung, sehr einfühlsam die wunderbaren Songs von Blaze gespielt. Besonders der „Oval Room“ kam in Phils modernisierter Variante sehr gut an und auch „Election Day“ war vor der heutigen Hessenwahl genau der richtige Song. Die Bar war gestern bis auf den letzten Platz besetzt, so dass einige Gäste, die etwas später kamen stehen mussten. So gut wie niemand kannte Blaze oder seine Musik.Es war ein toller Abend voller Emotionen. Zum Schluss sangen wir alle gemeinsam Lucinda Williams „Drunken Angel“. Es war schön zu sehen wie interessiert die Menschen an der Geschichte von Blaze waren.

Vielen Dank an Saskia und Phil! Es wird für uns ein unvergesslicher Abend bleiben.
...

Blaze Foley - From Misfit To Legend

Als im Januar 2018 unser Buch erschien, war noch nicht klar, dass wir in diesem Jahr noch ein zweites Buch veröffentlichen werden.

Doch viele Stimmen aus den USA und auch aus dem englischsprachigen Raum hier in Europa wünschten sich dieses Buch in englischer Sprache..

Den Arbeitsaufwand haben wir natürlich gnadenlos unterschätzt, weil viele Texte ja ursprünglich auf Englisch waren. Aber eine Bilddatei eines Zeitungsartikels ist keine editierbare Textdatei und so haben wir viele diese Zeitungsartikel abgetippt und in Form gebracht.

An unserem ersten Urlaubstag konnten wir dann noch den Druck freigeben und nach unserer Rückkehr die letzten Formalitäten, wie zum Beispiel die Anmeldung beim Verband lieferbarer Bücher (VLB) erledigen.

Ab dem 21.09.2018 ist „Blaze Foley – From Misfit To Legend” (ISBN 978-3-00-060018-0) offiziell erhältlich!
...

Vorstellung unseres Buches am 08.09.2018 auf dem "Bluegrass Festival" der Country & Western Friends Kötz

Erster Einsatz des Duxedo bei einer Lesung auf der offenen Bühne am Samstagnachmittag. Nach Carmens Einleitung las Kai ein paar Textpassagen aus unserem Buch und erklärte Blazes Duct Tape Fetisch anhand des Duxedo.

Vielen Dank an Peter Wroblewski von den Country & Western Friends Kötz für die Möglichkeit das Buch "Blaze Foley - Ein Außenseiter, der zur Legende wurde vorzustellen.
...

Duxedo

Inspiriert durch die vielen schönen "Duxedos" hat sich Kai mit unseren Duct Tape Vorräten beschäftigt...

Der "Duxedo" stammt ursprünglich von Blaze, der sein Sakko mit Duct Tape verschönert hatte.
Der offizielle Trailer zu "Blaze" ist online.

...

Blaze Foley – Duct Tape Messiah – Deluxe Edition

Die Dokumentation von Kevin Triplett ist seit gestern bei uns.
Bis jetzt hatten wir uns mit der DVD Beilage von der Soundtrack-LP zufrieden gegeben.

Wir befürchteten dass unser DVD Player am Ländercode der Deluxe Edition scheitern könnte. Da ich aber unbedingt die Original DVD haben wollte habe ich sie jetzt einfach bestellt.
Schon allein wegen dem schönen Cover lohnt es sich die DVD zu haben.
Und siehe da: kein Ländercode vorhanden. Sie lässt sich prima abspielen.
...

“If They Could Only Fly”

Blazes Marker-Kunstwerk hängt seit heute gerahmt an unserer Wand. Jetzt haben wir ihn immer „vor Augen“.
Zwei Flamingos in ihrem goldenen Käfig.

Wir danken Marsha Weldon für diesen tollen Druck!

19.05.2018
...

Artikel in der Offenbach-Post

Die Offenbach-Post hat am 14. April 2018 einen interessanten Artikel über unser Buch veröffentlicht.
Nun ist Blaze auch im Kreis Offenbach angekommen!

Artikel: Fasziniert vom "Panzerband"-Musiker
...

Der Plastikpunk im Honkytonk

Wir können es kaum glauben, dass „Faust Kultur“ eines der bundesweit renommiertesten Kulturportale über unser Buch „Blaze Foley – Ein Außenseiter, der zur Legende wurde“ berichtet.
Es ist schön zu sehen, dass Blaze nun auch in Deutschland angekommen ist.

Link zu Faust-Kultur
...

Country Times
Die Clubzeitschrift der Country & Western Friends
* Koetz 1982 e.V.*

Peter Wroblewski veröffentlichte im Club-Magazin der Country & Western-Freunde Koetz einen tollen Bericht über unser "Blaze Foley"-Buch.

Link zu den Country & Western Friends Koetz
...

"Legenden leben nur, wenn Menschen an sie erinnern"

Das "Neue Heimatblatt Rödermark" hat am 22.02.2018 unserem Buch über den Ausnahmekünstler Blaze Foley die Titelseite gewidmet.
...

Buchbesprechung auf Country.de

Thomas Waldherr hat unser Buch für Country.de rezensiert.

Link zu Country.de
... „Blaze“ landete unter den Top-10-Filmen des Festivals und Ben Dickey gewann einen „Special Jury Award“ für sein Schauspiel.

Unter folgenden Links wurde während des Festivals über den Film berichtet (in Englisch):

Variety-Magazin - Sundance 2018: Beste Film Kritiken.

Variety-Magazin - Sundance 2018: Über Ben Dickey, der mit der Darstellung von Blaze Foley einen Preis gewonnen hat.

thefilmstage.com - Sundance 2018: "Blaze" ist eine gefühlvolle Ode an einen interessanten, aber frustrierten Musiker.

Mit freundlicher Genehmigung von Ben Dickey
... Der Film „Blaze“ wird auf dem Sundance Film Festival 2018, vom 18. bis 28. Januar, in Park City, Utah, seine Weltpremiere feiern.

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Poet - Songwriter - Musician – 1949-1989
© Carmen Nees – All rights reserved to copyright, disclaimer
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