Nashville Rebel - W/Book

Product Review

A previously unreleased duet with Johnny Cash is among the special tracks to be found on the Waylon Jennings boxed set "Nashville Rebel," due Sept. 26th via RLG Nashville/Legacy.

"The Greatest Cowboy of Them All" was recorded in 1978, the same year the late Jennings' duet with Willie Nelson, "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys," spent four weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's country chart.

Beyond such hits as "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," "Good Hearted Woman," "I Ain't Living Long Like This," "Highwayman" and "Rose in Paradise," the four-disc collection includes two early period tracks that have never been released in the U.S.: "It's Sure Been Fun" and "People in Dallas Got Hair."

"Nashville Rebel" was created in tandem with Jennings' widow Jessi Colter and their son Shooter Jennings. Liner notes were penned by Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye and country historian Rich Kienzle.

Amazon.com

Though the late Waylon Jennings has had numerous greatest-hits compilations, this four-disc box that encompasses almost half a century of music making is his first comprehensive, career-spanning anthology. While the 1970s and early '80s were plainly Jennings's commercial and creative heyday--when the Outlaw movement christened by his recording of "Ladies Love Outlaws" was in full swagger--highlights here extend from his 1958 revival of the Cajun classic "Jolie Blon" (produced by Jennings's mentor Buddy Holly) through his swan-song recordings with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson as the Highwaymen. The trademark lope of Jennings's music and his penchant for self-mythologizing material give him a strong signature sound, but the anthology shows just how much musical territory he covered--from his folkish reading of Gordon Lightfoot's "(That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me" and his bluesy transformation of Little Richard's "Lucille" through his dips into the songbooks of Neil Young ("Are You Ready for the Country"), Jimmy Webb ("MacArthur Park"), and Los Lobos ("Will the Wolf Survive?"). The 140-page booklet provides thorough credits and annotation, as well as an abundance of photos of Waylon with friends, fellow musicians, and every famous person he ever met (from Muhammad Ali to Metallica's James Hetfield). --Don McLeese

Title Tracks for Nashville Rebel (W/Book) (Spkg)

1. Jole Blon
2. My Baby Walks All Over Me
3. That's The Chance I'll Have To Take
4. Stop The World (And Let Me Off)
5. Anita, You're Dreaming
6. Time To Bum Again
7. (That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me
8. Green River
9. Nashville Rebel
10. Mental Revenge
11. Love Of The Common People
12. The Chokin' Kind
13. Walk On Out Of My Mind
14. I Got You
15. Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line
16. Yours Love
17. Just To Satisfy You
18. Something's Wrong In California
19. Brown Eyed Handsome Man
20. Cedartown, Georgia
21. I Ain't The One
22. Singer Of Sad Songs
23. It's Sure Been Fun
24. Six White Horses
25. Pepole In Dallas Got Hair
26. The Taker
27. Mississippi Woman
28. Lovin' Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)
29. (Don't Let The Sun Set On You) Tulsa
30. Sweet Dream Woman
31. Ladies Love Outlaws
32. Under Your Spell Again
33. Lonesome, On'ry And Mean
34. Pretend I Never Happened
35. You Can Have Her
36. Honky Tonk Heroes
37. Black Rose
38. We Had It All
39. You Ask Me To
40. This Time
41. It's Not Supposed To Be That Way
42. Slow Rollin' Low
43. I'm A Ramblin' Man
44. Rainy Day Woman
45. Amanda
46. Bob Wills Is Still The King
47. Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way
48. Waymore's Blues
49. The Door Is Always Open
50. Dreaming My Dreams With You
51. '
52. 'T' For Texas
53. Freedom To Stay
54. Good Hearted Woman
55. Suspicious Minds
56. Can't You See
57. ARe You Ready For The Country
58. MacArthur Park (Revisited)
59. Luckenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics Of Love)
60. Brand New Goodbye Song
61. The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want To Get Over You)
62. Mammas Don' Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys
63. There Ain't No Good Chain Gang
64. I've Always Been Crazy
65. Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out Of Hand
66. The Greatest Cowboy Of Them All
67. Come With Me
68. I Ain't Living Long Like This
69. Clyde
70. THeme From The Dukes Of Hazzard (Good Ol' Boys)
71. Storms Never Last
72. Shine
73. Just TO Satisfy You
74. Women Do Know How To Carry On
75. (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
76. Lucille (You Won't Do Your Daddy's Will)
77. Breakin' Down
78. Take It To The Limit
79. The Conversation
80. I May Be USed (But Baby I Ain't Used Up)
81. Never Could Toe The Mark
82. America
83. Waltz Me To High Heaven
84. Highwayman
85. Drinkin' And Dreamin'
86. Working Without A Net
87. Will The Wolf Survive?
88. What You'll Do When I'm Gone
89. Rose In Paradise
90. Rough And Rowdy Days
91. Wrong
92. I Do Believe

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review

(47 customer reviews)

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

Here's a 4-CD set that's worthy of its subject, October 1, 2006

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nashville Rebel (W/Book) (Spkg) (Audio CD)

Going toe-to-toe with the monolithic, authoritative import box sets on the Bear Family label, Sony-BMG has finally given American country fans a comprehensive, thoroughly satisfying -- and affordable! -- overview of Waylon Jennings' entire career. From his early years singing in bars in the Southwest through his entry into (and swift departure from) the Nashville establishment, on into his "outlaw" golden years, this captures Waylon at his best.

Disc One, which concentrates on Jennings' early years as a 1960s "folk-country" singer in Nashville, probably has the most to offer fans who are already familiar with his big, rowdy hits of the '70s and early '80s. Although the folk-oriented material isn't as rugged or meaty as his later work, there are some soulful performances and unusual arrangements and production touches that may surprise even longtime fans. The disc is well-chosen and nicely paced, and packed with plenty of non-hit material that may be unfamiliar even to...Read more

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

Waylon Done It His Way, October 30, 2006

Jim Newsom (Norfolk, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nashville Rebel (W/Book) (Spkg) (Audio CD)

Waylon Jennings had one of the quintessential country music voices, a deep baritone audibly imbued with the hardscrabble upbringing of a child of itinerant farmhands who grew up to become a hard-headed, hard-boiled singer of songs on his own terms.

Jennings embodied the "outlaw" movement that reinvigorated country music in the 1970s. But his music career stretched back to the beginnings of rock-n-roll, when he was a disc jockey in Lubbock, Texas, who befriended rock pioneer Buddy Holly. Holly produced his first recording, a strange cover of the Cajun tune, "Jole Blon" that featured King Curtis on doo-wop saxophone. That single flopped, but Jennings was assured of being at least a footnote in the music history books even if he never recorded again:

After breaking up his band, the Crickets, Holly recruited Jennings to play electric bass with him on the "Winter Dance Party Tour" of 1959. When the heater on the tour bus stopped working, Holly chartered a plane for...Read more

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

Superb 4-CD encapsulation of Jennings' career, November 15, 2006

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nashville Rebel (W/Book) (Spkg) (Audio CD)

Jennings catalog has seen its share of reissues, in both original albums and anthologies, but never before has a box set captured the full story of his career. Reissues of original albums have told Jennings' story in bits and pieces, single-disc anthologies have cherry-picked the chart highlights, and Bear Family's import box sets "Destiny's Child" and "Six Strings Away" have laboriously cataloged the details of his pre-outlaw career. But with the release of this beautifully produced 4-CD collection, RCA provides both depth and breadth, essaying Jennings transition from a protégé of Buddy Holly to purveyor of folk- and country-rock hybrids to increasingly uncomfortable Nashville cat to rebel immortality and self-direction. Jennings' transformation is highly personal yet shared out loud with his audience; and especially visceral when condensed from thirty-seven years of individual albums to a four-disc box-set.

The earliest side here, one of three cut under the...Read more