Waylon Jennings & The .357s – Waylon Forever

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publisher

impulse buy

Vagrant Records
Produced by Shooter Jennings

When Waylon’s son Shooter was 16 the pair recorded an album together. That was 12 years ago and despite their best intentions it never saw release. Waylon died in 2002 and now Shooter has taken the original recordings and completed the songs.

Nothing happened with these final recordings of Waylon until a couple of years ago when Shooter transferred them from the original tapes into pro-tools. Together with his band the .357s and producer Dave Cobb he recorded new backing tracks for Waylon’s vocals, having found that the original tracks, being as they were his first ever recording experience, sounded a little young.

The tracks are mostly covers and reworkings of three of Waylon’s own classics. Outlaw Sh*t is a slower, softer version of Don’t You Think This Outlaw Sh*t Done Got Out of Hand, plus a grooving Waymore’s Blues and a faithful version of Lonesome On’ry And Mean, a track which Shooter often covers in his own sets. On these, and indeed on all of the tracks present, Waylon’s vocals are outstanding, losing nothing of the uniquely warm voice he had for his whole career.

Around these new versions of some of his most well known tracks are a few cover songs. The first, opening the album, is the traditional American folk song Jack of Diamonds, which is exactly what you’d expect, a countrified version of the original. Later a reworking of Neil Young‘s Are You Ready For The Country?, long a Waylon staple, almost sounds like early Black Sabbath in a country style with a slow, rolling bass-line. The vocal melody is also a bit jazzier here, giving it a little more groove than Waylon’s previous version.

Rodney Crowell’s Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This is also given a make-over, again injecting a lot of the southern groove which influences much of Shooter and the .357′s own output. Finally a suitably laid-back run through of Cream‘s White Room, with plenty of emotive guitar playing, rounds out the bulk of the album before the main event.

The album ends with what is sadly the only brand new song in this collection. Written by Waylon and never before released, I Found The Body mixes country and gospel and is easily both the most interesting, and most surprising track on the disc, and no doubt the one that will have Waylon and Shooter fans most excited.

Along with only one new song, the only other disappointing thing here is that Shooter didn’t add more of his own vocals to Waylons. Not necessarily duets, as they should quite rightly be sung together, but maybe alternate verses or similar. Though he probably wanted to leave the vocal limelight to his father and just play his role in the backing band.

It is sad that this is probably the last fans will hear of Waylon, but where many posthumous releases devalue an artists career, Waylon Forever adds to, and enhances his. A fitting swan song, and a worthy final addition to all fans’ collections.

“ uniquely warm voice ”

Tracklist: Jack of Diamonds / Outlaw Sh*t / Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This / Are You Ready For The Country? / Lonesome On’ry And Mean / Waymore’s Blues / White Room / I Found The Body

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2008, Albums, Non-metal, Waylon Jennings