LISTEN – Waylon Jennings: Nashville Rebel

Waylon Jennings: Nashville Rebel [Columbia/Legacy – $49.98]

Waylon Jennings’ name is synonymous with “outlaw country.” That’s one Waylon Jennings story: about the Texas-born, hard-living country singer with a stubborn streak, who in the ‘70s broke with record-company convention to take creative control of his career, and who bonded with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson and other independent-minded country-music rebels, together taking an outlaw stance of artistic nonconformity and determination. Nashville Rebel, the title of the new Jennings four-disc box set, came not from his breaking with Music City-rules in the ‘70s, but from the songwriter/cowboy role he played in the 1966 B-movie of the same name. But at the same time, the title works as the perfect descriptor of his career, because that how he’s remembered: as a county music rebel. [Amazon]

Full PopMatters review

Live on Austin City Limits