There aren’t many cover tunes on Dash Rip Rock’s dozen-plus albums; leader Bill Davis already has plenty of songs, thank you. But the band’s gone deep for this tribute to Texas great Billy Joe Shaver; not even including his most-covered song, “Georgia on a Fast Train.” While they’ve pulled a number of Dash-friendly rockers from his catalogue, they also follow Shaver’s muse to darker corners they wouldn’t normally visit.

High on that list is “Aunt Jessie’s Chicken Farm”—quite literally one motherfucker of an outlaw ballad. Davis spins the sordid tale with effective understatement, with only acoustic guitar and Waylon Thibodeaux’s gypsy fiddle for accompaniment. The bare-bones approach also gets the foreboding across on “Light a Candle for Me,” where the hero’s redemption comes a little too late.

Elsewhere, Dash evinces the same rejuvenation heard on last winter’s Black Liquor (the Shaver album was actually recorded first). Producer Tab Benoit keys into their versatility, keeping the rockers good and rowdy (and jumping into the fray on guitar and steel), but adding uncharacteristic Nashville polish on the ballads. The band honors Shaver’s tender side along with the more familiar outlaw side; what the songs have in common is that they’re not for the chicken-hearted.

Shaver also gives Dash a ready-made anthem in “Real Deal,” about musicians who do the heavy lifting while upstarts get the glory.  It may well be the first time anyone’s ever sounded like a badass while using the phrase “Bet your sweet patootie.”