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When the producer-driven Nashville sound reinvigorated country music, Waylon Jennings wasn't happy. It meant producers chose his songs and session players recorded them -- not his band. When his contract came up for renewal in 1972 he and his manager demanded Waylon produce himself. Lonesome On'ry and Mean, which debuted on Billboard's Hot Country LP chart on April 7, 1973, is the first album under the new deal.
Honky Tonk Heroes, released later in 1973 is considered the first of the outlaw country albums but Lonesome is where the transition happens. Three songs were recorded before the deal but the rest were recorded by Waylon Jennings and the Waylons. The sound is more stripped down. The songs are just more "real" than what anybody else was recording.
Jennings covers Danny O'Keefe's "Good Time Charlie's Got The Blues", Mickey Newbury's "San Francisco Mabel Joy" and Kris Kristoffersen's "Me and Bobby McGee". His cover of the country standard, "You Can Have Her", hit the Top Ten. But the title cut, by renegade Steve Young, captured the new outlaw image that would make Jennings a legend:
Now I'm down in this valley,
Where the wheels turn so low
At dawn I pray,
to the Lord of my soul
I say do Lord, do right by me
You know I'm tired of being lonesome on'ry and mean
Lonesome On'ry and Mean comes with bonus cuts including the previously unreleased single "The Last One to Leave Seattle".
One of my favourite singers - he was just so real.
ReplyDeleteHey there,
ReplyDeleteHow do we join the "party" we grew up on "Outlaw" Country and Trucker songs of the 70's. We also had Led Zep, Elvis, The Ramones, and others influence our musical endeavors.
We just shot a video for our version of "Hank Done It This Way"..our ALL TIME favorite Waylon tune. we'd like to share our rendition and our musical works. How do we do this? Being in our 40's we're not exactly up to snuff on media . I do know you always ask for permission on anything that isn't yours. We'd like to share the upcoming video in the meantime we've got a lot of original, NEW COUNTRY songs. We play what's on the Radio to stay working in Clubs but we prefer tthe original aspect of music personally.