PERDIDO KEY, Fla. - Honky Tonk Hero Billy Joe Shaver dropped in at the Flora-Bama Lounge and Package Store to surprise patrons with a 30-minute set.

The Texas native has been coming to the club for years and frequents the Frank Brown Songwriter's Festival annual event on Pleasure Island. He is vacationing for a few days and it's expected he might pop in for another set tonight.

Shaver has had an up-and-down career, but has always written legendary songs. His most popular was "I'm Just an Old Chunk of Coal, But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday" taken to No. 4 by John Anderson. Bobby Bare had a big hit with Shaver's "Ride Me Down Easy."

From CMT.com:

"Shaver did a quick turn in the Navy and worked a series of nowhere jobs (including the one in the sawmill) before trying his luck in Nashville. After several futile trips between Texas and Tennessee, he appeared one day in 1968 in Bobby Bare's Nashville office, where he convinced Bare to listen to him play. Bare ended up giving him a writing job.

"Shaver recorded one song for Mercury, "Chicken on the Ground," which went nowhere, but soon his songs began to see the light of day thanks to Kris Kristofferson ("Good Christian Soldier"), Tom T. Hall ("Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me"), Bare ("Ride Me Down Easy"), and later, the Allman Brothers ("Sweet Mama") and Elvis Presley ("You Asked Me To").

"Shaver's real breakthrough, though, came in 1973 when Waylon Jennings recorded an album composed almost entirely of Shaver's songs, Honky Tonk Heroes -- largely considered the first true "outlaw" album. 

"Shaver's debut album was Old Five & Dimers Like Me, produced by Kristofferson and released by Monument (Kristofferson's label) in 1973.

"Along with the title track, it contained the now-classic Shaver songs "Willie the Wandering Gypsy and Me" and the aforementioned "Georgia on a Fast Train." Shaver switched to MGM a year later, but no album materialized.

"'Raising hell' was, as he had sung, part of his lifestyle at the time, and it kept him out of sight for a couple years. In 1976, Shaver resurfaced with When I Get My Wings on Capricorn, and followed it up a year later with Gypsy Boy." 

Lately the 73-year-old Shaver still tours extensively, mostly in the Southwestern U.S., and occasionaly likes to vacation on the Gulf Coast. 

For a gallery of pictures from Friday night, visit: http://www.gulfcoastnewstoday.com/area_news/collection_74d98da4-997f-11e2-a995-001a4bcf887a.html