Ultimate Waylon Jennings

Performer: Waylon Jennings
Artist: Willie Nelson; Johnny Cash; Kris Kristofferson
Producer: Rob Santos (Compilation)
Distributor: Sony BMG Music (Canada) (

Notes: Personnel includes: Waylon Jennings (vocals, guitar); Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson. Recorded between 1968 & 1986. Includes liner notes by Lenny Kaye. It's a music criticism clich� to complain about the title of a collection like Ultimate Waylon Jennings, to snipe that the album doesn't live up to the promise of its title when, after all, the Ultimate series is merely RCA/BMG's response to Sony's popular Essentials series. Still, when a compilation falls as short of the mark as this, it's hard not to grumble. Ultimate Waylon Jennings suffers from the need to be evenhanded and to extend the compilation to his less popular and less artistically successful '80s recordings, including a selection from the supergroup the Highwaymen. This comes at the expense of any '60s hit outside of "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line," any song from the immortal Honky Tonk Heroes, several hits (including many number ones), and a lot of great album tracks and minor hits. Of course, these kind of omissions are inevitable when a career as rich and prolific as Waylon's is condensed to a mere 22 tracks, but the problem is that there is too much emphasis on late-'70s material and too many tracks from the '80s (a full seven songs), and there are too many classic tracks missing. Nevertheless, there are enough classics present -- such as "The Taker," "I'm a Ramblin' Man," "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," and "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" -- to make it an enjoyable listen, but there are so many good Waylon compilations on the market that there's not much reason to get this, even if it's billed as Ultimate. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine The 2004 collection ULTIMATE WAYLON JENNINGS has a lot in common with the 1996 ESSENTIAL WAYLON JENNINGS. Both are single-disc, career-spanning RCA anthologies that contain most of the late country legend's biggest hits. Due to the enormity of Jennings's catalogue, one CD simply can't hold every major Jennings tune, but these compilations include a remarkable amount of top-notch material. There's significant overlap between the two, but some differences as well. ULTIMATE one-ups ESSENTIAL by featuring Waylon's incisive version of Neil Young's "Are You Ready for the Country," the definitive early hit "This Time," and the self-mythologizing anthems "Luckenbach, Texas" and "I'm a Ramblin' Man." There was a notable drop-off in the quality of Jennings's '80s work, but ULTIMATE wisely focuses on the Outlaw Country pioneer's '70s salad days, presenting a credible case for Jennings as one of the finest country singers of his generation.

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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