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Henry Horenstein
Waylon Jennings, Performance Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1976
| No one personified the hard-living, honky tonk life as much as Waylon did. Born in Littlefield, Texas, in 1937, he played bass with rock-and-roll legend Buddy Holly in the 1950s, roomed and misbehaved with Johnny Cash in the 1960s, and had dozens of top-ten hits along the way—including 1978’s "Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." But it was as an "Outlaw" that Waylon made his biggest contribution. Along with co-conspirators Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, Billy Joe Shaver, and others, the Outlaws streamlined arrangements, eschewed clichéd lyrics, and modernized country music by looking back to its soulful roots and mixing in a shot of rock-and-roll. |
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