Living in the Woods in a Tree: Remembering Blaze Foley (Volume 2) (North Texas Lives of Musician Series)

“Most people live their life in quiet desperation, and usually indoors. Mr. Foley blazed the outdoors and made the rest of us unique. A rare book about a rare being.”–Colonel Bruce Hampton

“More famous dead than alive, Blaze Foley continues growing in legend. . . . Romantic without being cloying, Living in the Woods in a Tree is perhaps the most complete vision of the Duct Tape Messiah as we’re likely to get, and Rosen portrays a complex, confounding subject with a simplicity and seductiveness that’s all too rare.”–Austin Chronicle

“A much-liked character on the Austin, Texas, music scene in the 1970s and ’80s, he was shot dead at 39. Though his recorded output is scarce, his influence remains large. His friend Lucinda Williams wrote a song about him–“Drunken Angel”–as did Townes Van Zandt. Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and others have covered his songs.”–New York Post

“In her work–mostly memoir, part biography–Rosen struggles to come to terms with Foley’s myth and her role in its creation. She offers a firsthand account of his transformation from a reticent hippie musician to the enigmatic singer-songwriter who’d live and die outside society’s rules.”–Texas Music