Luke Grimes Goes ‘Outlaw Country’ To Cover Blaze Foley’s ‘Clay Pigeons’

Popular actor turned rising country music artist Luke Grimes has released his Amazon Original version of Blaze Foley’s “Clay Pigeons.” The Mercury Nashville/Range Music signing and “No Horse To Ride” hitmaker included the song in his set last night (30) when he performed for the first time at the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, CA. Listen to the song here.

Foley’s original “Clay Pigeons” was released in February 1989, and Yellowstone star Grimes says: “In my opinion, Blaze Foley is one of the more underrated singer songwriters in the history books of country music. He truly was outlaw country in every sense, and he practiced what he preached.

“‘Clay Pigeons’ is not only my favorite song from Blaze, but one of my favorite songs of all time. The structure, melody, and lyrics are all so simple, yet they come together to say something so profound. The songwriting is masterful. There has always been something so comforting to me about the melancholy feel of this song.”

The song is also well known in its cover by John Prine, who included it on his 2005 album Fair & Square. Other versions include those by Gurf Morlix (with whom Foley worked) in 2011 and Dylan Earl in 2017. Arkansas native Foley was a cult favorite artist and close associated of Townes Van Zandt, and died in Austin, Texas in 1989, at the age of just 39. He was the subject of the documentary Blaze Foley: Duct Tape Messiah in 2011.

Grimes’ Stagecoach debut was part of the livestream of the festival which was available on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch and Prime Video from yesterday afternoon PT. The livestream also featured exclusive content including live interviews with some of the performers by Country Heat Weekly host Kelly Sutton and Amber Anderson. Grimes’ “No Horse To Ride” was on the cover of Spotify’s Country Hits 2023 playlist and has been on eight Spotify Viral Charts.

Buy or stream Luke Grimes’ debut hit “No Horse To Ride.”