Since then, his great songs have sat deep in the hearts of the many fine musicians who worked with him over the years.

He was called the duct tape messiah because of his famous appearances clothed with the stuff as a costume. His friends told him farewell by duct taping his coffin.

He tried to maintain an outlaw image, and admired the better known outlaw icons such as Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt. But his music is gentle and speaks with tender longing of life's struggles and hopes.

His Live at the Austin Outhouse was recorded just a month before his death. It has been reissued on CD by Lost Art Records with part of the proceeds going to the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless. Homeless himself, Blaze chose to concentrate on his one mission in life--to write songs--rather than to have a day job to make life "easier."

Foley succeeded in writing hundreds of songs. He made several recordings, however many of the master tapes have been either lost or stolen.

Live at the Austin Outhouse contains fifteen Blaze Foley songs, including his "If I Could Only Fly." He is backed on the album by Ed Bradfield on harmonica, Sarah Elizabeth Campbell on harmony vocals, Lost John Casner on piano, Champ Hood on fiddle and David Waddell on bass. There is now www.blazefoley.com where you can order the CD.

Two recordings of Blaze Foley tunes, released in 1998 and 1999, are his songs sung in tribute by his friends. They are In Tribute and Loving Memory and Blaze A Blaze Volume Too.

Foley was loved by his friends for his kindness, his character, and, of course, his great songwriting.

The songs and singers on these two tribute albums are so completely Austin, they must be listed.

A third tribute album from Deep South Productions Blaze Foley Inside: BFI Three was released in 2002. Here's what the Austin Chronicle said about it. "If you pine for the old days of the Austin Outhouse, this sounds like a recorded jam session from that late, great local dive. Not everything here works, but when it does, it's far better than any high-budget, all-star tribute could have been. Highlights: Gurf Morlix, in his typical oddness, covers 123,1234: the Blazettes, including Blaze one-time girlfriend Mandy Mercier, capture the silliness of Girl Scout Cookies perfectly, Deep in Cider twist the R-rated There Goes That into something that might belong on a Prince tribute; and Misfit Zion has an appropriately moody take on (New) Slow Boat to China. But wait, there is some star power on BFI Three; Rader and Smith managed permission to include Foley's greatest commerical success, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson's cover of If I Could Only Fly, originally on the Seashores of Old Mexico album.?

The album is worth a listen for Girl Scout Cookies alone. In that single tune, the following Austin singers stepped up to the mic: Rachel Rain, Julieann Banks, Marsha Weldon, De Lewelln, Mandy Mercier, Sheri Frushay, Carol Jean Hubbert, Caryl P. Weiss, Brenda Freed, Leti De La Vega, Beth Gallagher, and a couple of actual Girls Scouts.

Since we listed everything for the first two albums, we'll continue the tradition. A red star by a song title indicates that you can hear an mp3 sound clip on our Country Austin Sound Clips page.

Deep South Productions also released Songs for Blaze, A Friend of Ours in 2002. These are songs written in Blaze Foley's honor by people who loved and admired him as a singer and songwriter. The album copy by Kevin Triplett reads, "It's rare for someone to influence others, ten years after their death. Even so, it's even rarer when four tributes are produced in someone's honor. Justice can be ironic and never seems to own anyone anything, so it's sweet whenever justice is finally served in some measure."

Songs for Blaze, A Friend of Ours contains 20 songs! A red star by a song title indicates that you can hear an mp3 sound clip on our Country Austin Sound Clips page. Here they are:

Look for his music on CDBaby.