Stuart Ryan shares the acoustic style of one of country music’s original bad boys, a legend who inspired some of today’s biggest stars.
Waylon Jennings is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of the ‘outlaw country’ movement that developed in the 1970s. In essence, this meant working outside the confines of the dominant Nashville sound that dictated country music, and resulted in a harder edged sound influenced by country, honky tonk and rockabilly. Jennings was part of a scene that included Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson among others.
The main approach to outlaw country was to move away from Nashville’s sleek production, and ironically away from the sound of beloved producers like guitar legend Chet Atkins. Lyrical themes were darker and the music began to take on more of a rock influence as the genre developed.
Waylon Jennings had a fascinating history before he crossed over into the outlaw country sound, however. Leaving school at 16 he was determined to become a musician and as a young man he was hired by rock and roll legend Buddy Holly to play bass. If that wasn’t incredible enough, how about the fact that he gave up his seat on the plane that tragically crashed killing Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens? Moving into the 1960s, Jennings formed a rockabilly band before pioneering his outlaw country sound from the early 1970s on.
Jennings was influenced by the rock and roll and country greats of the day, such as Elvis Presley, Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb. By age 14 he was regularly performing on local radio and by 16 he was a touring musician. He spent some time writing and recording radio jingles then started working with Buddy Holly in 1959, which proved to be the gateway to him becoming an artist in his own right. His initial releases followed the commercial country sound of the time but a heavy touring schedule and personal diffi
