291. Waylon Jennings - Honky Tonk Heroes (1973)

















Track Listing

1. Honky Tonk Heroes
2. Old Five And Dimers (Like Me)
3. Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me
4. Low Down Freedom
5. Omaha
6. You Ask Me To
7. Ride Me Down Easy
8. Ain't No God In Mexico
9. Black Rose
10. We Had It All

Review

My favourite kind of country consists of outlaw songs, and this is a collection of mainly outlaw tracks by one of the best in the business, Waylon Jennings. The album isn't that amazing but you can tell that it is actually a different animal to most country music albums at the time.

As soon as the guitar kicks in in the first track you know you have something special, the guitar is very rocky actually, the lyrics are also great and Jennings sings like a man who experienced much of what he sings about, and he probably has at that. This makes it a good album, but some of the tracks do fall into country cliche, altohugh they are all played at a very morose pace which is not at all common.

The album comes across as a heartfelt collection of tracks about people at the margin of society, but it really isn't as exciting as it could be. I am sure that someone like Cash, even though he is quite a similar performer to Jennings, could have done a better job at the same tracks, but maybe that's because I am such a Cash fan. Still, it is worth looking at and listening to and a good country album is always a rarity nowadays. Get it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Honky Tonk Heroes
2. We Had It All
3. Ain't No God In Mexico
4. Low Down Freedom

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

With the exception of the tenth and final track, all of the songs on the album were originally written or co-written by Billy Joe Shaver, who helped shape Jennings' movement in the direction of outlaw country. The record was largely produced by Jennings himself, with some of the production handled by Tompall Glaser, and reached #14 on the country charts; "You Asked Me To" and "We Had It All" became successful singles, peaking at #8 and #28, respectively. The liner notes, describing initial mistrust and tension between Jennings and Shaver as well as the emotion that went into each song on the record, were written by Roger "Captain Midnight" Schutt, a radio personality who was also pictured on the album's cover.

Honky Tonk Heroes: