The Essential Waylon Jennings [RCA Nashville/Legacy] [PA] [Digipak]

Performer: Waylon Jennings
Artist: Willie Nelson; Jessi Colter
Producer: Chet Atkins; Chips Moman; Jerry Bridges; James Musil; Danny Davis; Gary Scruggs; Jack Clement; Jimmy Bowen; Ray Pennington; Richie Albright; Ron Haffkine; Ronny Light; Tompall Glaser; Waylon Jennings; Willie Nelson; Ken Mansfield; Gary Scruggs (Compilation); Shooter Jennings (Compilation)
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel: Waylon Jennings (vocals, guitar); Dorothy Dillard, Raymond Walker, Hugh Stoker, Anita Kerr, William Wright, Louis Dean Nunley (vocals); Larry Whitmore, Carl Gay, Jerry Gropp, Jerry Reed, Ray Edenton, Reggie Young (guitar); Ralph Mooney (steel guitar); Sheldon Kurland, Martin Katahn (violin); Tommy Jackson (fiddle); Marvin Chantry (viola); Martha McCrory (cello); Don Brooks, Roger Crabtree, Charlie McCoy (harmonica); Mack Johnson (trumpet); Maurice Spears (trombone); Ray Stevens (piano, vibraphone); Floyd Cramer, Kyle Lehning, Charles Cochran (piano); Larry Butler (organ); Jim Haber (keyboards); Jerry Bridges, Duke Goff, Henry Strzelecki, Norbert Putnam, Paul Foster, Bob Moore (bass guitar); Dan Mustoe, Ritchie Albright, Buddy Harman (drums). The pride of Littlefield, Texas, Waylon Jennings was a member of Buddy Holly and the Crickets during the fateful 1959 tour that ended with Holly's death in a plane crash. But by the early 1970s, the ferociously talented and mercurial singer-songwriter had completely erased his early status as a rock-&-roll footnote. Almost singlehandedly inventing the entire genre of outlaw country alongside his friend Willie Nelson, Jennings's '70s and '80s material sounds as fresh on THE ESSENTIAL WAYLON JENNINGS as it did at the time of its release. Country rockers like "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" and gentler ballads like his duet with wife Jessi Colter, "Storms Never Last," showcase both sides of Jennings's career, while "Good Ol' Boys," the theme to the TV series THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, remains probably his best-known song. There have been plenty of Waylon Jennings compilations released over the years, most of them good but few capturing the full scope of his career. RCA/Legacy's 2007 double-disc set The Essential Waylon Jennings -- not to be confused with the single-disc comp of about a decade earlier -- comes the closest, just edging out the previous two-CD standard-bearer, RCA Country Legends (which itself replaced the excellent two-CD Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line), as the best concise overview on the market. This begins a bit earlier than RCA Country Legends, starting with "Big Mamou" and "That's the Chance I'll Have to Take," and wraps up a bit earlier, not digging as deep into the '80s recordings, which is no great loss. Essential runs two songs longer than Legends, but it has two big omissions in Billy Joe Shaver's "Black Rose" and Toy Caldwell's "Can't You See," but overall this 2007 set has is a stronger set from beginning to end, containing almost all the big hits -- from "Stop the World (And Let Me Off)" through "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" and "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" to "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," "Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want to Get Over You)" and "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" -- and containing no fat, making this an excellent overview and introduction to Waylon's prime. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Texan country singer Waylon Jennings was always a bit of a rocker. Early on, he played bass with Buddy Holly, and his first solo records included Beatles covers, highly unusual for a country artist at the time. Jennings was one of the key figures of the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, rejecting the lush countrypolitan sound in favor of a raw, electrified approach that owed more to the Rolling Stones than to Billy Sherrill. With a small band and simple arrangements, Jennings introduced contemporary rock-oriented grooves into his hard-hitting country sound, adding some funky grit to common-man poetics on tunes about the tougher side of life. He inspired a subsequent generation of country iconoclasts, and spurred on contemporaries like Willie Nelson and Tompall Glaser.

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