Drunken Angel

I always try to take a portrait of our little Christmas angel every year before she has to return to a box in our loft and this time I wanted to go for a slightly noir-ish feel. I didn't mean to cast aspersions against her character by today's title but she does look a little like she's been at the yuletide sherry  - mind you anybody would turn to drink after spending the best part of two weeks atop a Christmas tree!

Today's title also happens to be same as that for a track on one of my favourite albums - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road by the American singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams.
"Drunken Angel" recounts the story of Blaze Foley, a songwriter and general roustabout from Austin, Texas who was shot and killed in 1989 and became something of a cult figure after his death with other artists covering his songs or writing ones about him.
Williams, a former resident of Austin, was an acquaintance of Foley's and  also a champion of his music. One part of the lyrics refers to "a derelict with duct-taped shoes" and indeed he enjoyed a long love affair with the sliver tape, even going as far as fashioning an entire suit out of it and once being dubbed the 'duct-taped messiah'. He claimed never to have had a real job and was known to sleep on pool tables and friend's couches.
Williams' song pulls no punches with her lyrics as she considered him to be something of wasted talent who allowed his demons to overtake his art but still manages to create a vivid portrait by conveying this and his messianic status amongst his fans as both a "drunken angel" and a "beautiful loser".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cckroKLPsqg