I'm going to save him some money in the long run. Go straight to the Nashville Rebel box set - it's a nearly perfect encapsulation of Waylon's entire career, mastered by Vic Anesini at the top of his game. https://www.amazon.com/Nashville-Rebel-Waylon-Jennings/dp/B000HEWGHE This 4-CD, 92-track overview captures the "straight" and "outlaw" sides of this once-in-a-generation talent, his first career-spanning boxed set! His early, Buddy Holly-produced single, Jole Blon , kicks things off, and then it's off to Nashville and superstardom with such tracks as I'm a Ramblin' Man; Dreaming My Dreams with You; Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love); Good Hearted Woman (with Willie Nelson); I've Always Been Crazy; Suspicious Minds (with Jessi Colter); Highwayman , and more, even an unreleased 1978 duet with Johnny Cash. A lavish book includes unseen photos and memorabilia. But once you delve into this box, the larger Bear Family boxes will be calling.
Apart from Steve Young's original! I quite like Waylon and have a small but carefully selected catalogue of his; Only Daddy 2CD box, Analogue Pearls SACD, Dreaming My Dream on DCC and the Vic A remastered and expanded Live set.
A splendid choice no doubt and I also like the Essential Waylon set 3.0, which also has Vic's splendid remastering as I recall. My only beef with the great Nashville Rebel box set is that it has what I consider his far inferior version of the splendid MacArthur Park, without The fabulous Kimberlys and absent that great orchestral arrangement by Bergen White. His voice had also narrowed in range and he does not reach for those high notes as he does in the earlier Grammy winning version. It is also missing his tender ballad with his lovely wife Jessie Colter on Storms Never Last. I also agree with you that if he like one of these three box sets a lot, the real way to go is the two Bear Family Journey box sets as they sound fantastic and come with great books as well. A must have for the true Waylon fan!
Yes!!! My personal favorite country singer. Wonderful voice, wonderful guitar, wonderful songs! And yet he is only really famous within country music circles -- he doesn't have the universal fame Johnny Cash does. He isn't included in everyone's exception ("I hate country music... except Johnny Cash") He had so many golden, classic songs: Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way, I've Always Been Crazy, Slow Rollin' Low, Honky Tonk Heroes, Black Rose, Lonesome On'ry & Mean, Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line, Luchenbach Texas, The Wurlitzer Prize, I'm a Ramblin' Man, Don't Y'all Think This Outlaw Bit Done Got Outta Hand... Hank Jr. even had to write a song about his guitar playing.
Johnny Cash is a genre unto himself. Willie, Merle and Waylon are it when it comes to the Outlaw movement (with Kris Kristofferson thrown-in for good songwriting measure). I have great respect for Waylon. His voice is marvelous. He may have put the Brylcreem away in the 1970's, but he never turned his back on his Lubbock roots. Buddy Holly's music was in his blood. I don't listen to Waylon as much as Willie or Merle though... their peaks are so high and their catalogs run so deep.
I'd also recommend Waylon's 1994 album "Waymore's Blues, Part 2". Some really nice songs on that one! I like his mature voice.
Every song for me on 'Waymore's Blues Part II' are all wonderful songs. Couldn't even pick out a favourite.
There's something about Tony Joe White and Waylon Jennings when they get together it makes so much sense. A good head rockin' laid back blues. Tony Joe & Waymore - Shakin' The Blues
Quite a few nice used copies available at Discogs at a fair price. The next album, Right for the Time (1996), was pressed on vinyl in 2013.
Yep and CD and Cassette! how funny is that? It was remastered too which brought some sonic life into it. The original on Justice Records sounded like it was mixed and completely missed the mastering process.
Yeah man, what a run, Waylon's run in the first half of the '70s was like Steve Wonder's run in the middle of the decade.
As much as I adore "Lonesome On'ry & Mean" and "Omaha" and "Bob Wills Is Still the King" and "Are You Sure Hank Done It That Way," etc., maybe my favorite Waylon song is this, his own composition, recorded with The Highwaymen in the early 90s, "I Do Believe"
Steve Young was a bad man ... To me that video is him and the Wailers in peak form, especially Richie Albright.
Saw waylon a couple of times. First was as support for the new riders in the mid 70s and again as part of the highwaymen at the Nassau Coliseum that was later released.
Well there's is autobiography written with Lenny Kaye, not an all-time great memoir, but a good one, and much better than your average as told to popular musician autobiography
What's with the distorted sound in the background on the song "Pretend I Never Happened" from the album "Lonesome, On'ry & Mean"? Is that a guitar? It sounds awful and it ruins the song for me. I'd stick with Willie's original version.
Are you sure is a bass harmonica? Anyway, i didn't even know this devilish things existed, they're terrible! Do you know of any examples in which was put to good use?
Ramblin man from the same show is also excellent. And I like this one. It looks like Waylon has been up for days (probably have). Man, that twangy foot stompin music he and his band did rocks as hard as any rock n roll band from the 70s
There's a photo in Waylon's autobiography where he says he'd been up for two weeks without sleep. He looks it and probably smelled it. God only knows how much blow that took.
