Four Rare Waylon Jennings Albums Collected in Upcoming CD Set from Cherry Red Records

 

On July 16, 2021, Cherry Red Records will release four rare albums from the country outlaw icon Waylon Jennings. These albums chronicle the singer's transition from a clean-cut member of the country music establishment to the long-haired rebel who fought against Nashville and, more specifically, the stifling control that RCA Victor was imposing upon him as an artist.  

Singer of Sad Songs from 1970 was recorded almost entirely in Hollywood by Lee Hazlewood, who had made a name for himself as a frequent collaborator of Nancy Sinatra. With an emphasis on reverb and guitars as opposed to the traditional syrupy Nashville sound at the time, the album finds Waylon covering The Rolling Stones, George Jones, and Hazlewood himself. 

1971's The Taker/Tulsa moves things one step further, with nearly half the compositions on the album coming from Kris Kristofferson and with recording sessions that utilized Ricky Nelson's band in Los Angeles. The record label refused to promote the album due to Jennings' increasing movement toward a new country sound and technique, pushing the one-time Buddy Holly collaborator even further away from Nashville tradition.

Good Hearted Woman in 1972 marks the true beginning of the outlaw movement that also saw Willie Nelson and Tompall Glaser become music revolutionaries. This continues on Ladies Love Outlaws later that same year, which finds Waylon Jennings fully embracing his new darker image and sound, and as a result, leading a new movement of honest and authentic musical artistry. 

These four landmark albums are collected in a two-CD collection from Cherry Red Records that also includes an essay on this period of Waylon's work. All four records have been either extremely rare in the CD era or completely unavailable, making this collection the first time that they've been offered in this format. 

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