OUTLAW: CELEBRATING THE MUSIC OF WAYLON JENNINGS

It was the old guard and the alt guard—with a couple mainstream icons in Grammy winners Alison Krauss and Lee Ann Womack—at Outlaw, a tribute to Waylon Jennings July 6 at Austin’s Moody Theater. Anchored by Willie Nelson, featuring Kris Kristofferson, Jennings’ widow Jessi Colter, Kacey Musgraves, Eric Church and Sturgill Simpson, it was two dozen songs that celebrated the unrepentant spirit of the ultimate “Outlaw.”

From the moment Bobby Bare, his rich baritone landing strong and robust, leaned into a punched-up “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line,” music—from the Don Was-led all-star band that included Jennings’ drummer Richie Albright and wicked steel guitarist Robbie Turner, as well as Buddy Miller, Mickey Raphael and Matt Rollings—was the driving focus for Keith Wortman and co-musical director Buddy Cannon’s concert to honor the fiercely independent legend.

Son Shooter Jennings covered the wonderful if obscure “Whistlers and Jugglers,” while Colter told a story of writing “Mona” early in their relationship, then challenging him to “really sing it.” Throughout the night, Jennings’ complexities were on display—from the Womack/Miller tenderness on the 1967 hit “Your’s Love” to the feisty “Ain’t Living Long Like This,” delivered with gumption by Nashville outlier Chris Stapleton and his Morgan Hayes.
Musgraves did a sweet take on the heartbroke “Wurlitzer Prize,” Jamey Johnson offered Jennings’ hard-boiled dignity and passion on “Freedom to Stay” and Ryan Bingham dusted off Jennings’ “Rainy Day Woman.” If Colter and Kristofferson’s reprise of her “Storms Never Last” evoked smiles and memories of Jennings’ resilience, it was Krauss who hushed an entire theater with her pure soprano vulnerability on Allen Reynolds’ “Dreamin’ My Dreams.”

Backstage was yet another gathering of tribes. Longtime manager Mark Rothbaum, Jennings’ ICM agent Martha Lattrell, Q Prime’s John Peets, Paradigm’s Bobby Cudd, literary agent Dave Vigliano, Esquire’s Andy Langer, SiriusXM’s Jeremy Tepper and uber-publicist Elaine Shock were there.

But it was Nelson, Jennings’ most frequent duet partner, who set the tone. After a tender solo take on Rodney Crowell’s “Til I Gain Control Again,” he teamed with Toby Keith for a rollicking “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” then offered a heart-tugging read (with duet partner Stapleton) on Sharon Vaughn’s “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” that illuminated the essence of the Outlaw movement: noble, thoughtful and informed by higher value, it defined Jennings, Nelson and the era.

The icons and heirs merged at set’s end, as Nelson and Kristofferson paired with Shooter and Jamey Johnson (taking Waylon and Johnny Cash’s roles) on the Mount Rushmore all-star #1 from Jimmy Webb, “The Highwayman.”
Jennings was—and remains—a man of many contradictions: fierce, thoughtful, dignified, wild, and especially an appreciator of songs. If the quirky “Take back the cocaine, baby” celebration of “I Can Get Off on You” with Simpson was high-timing and hard-charging, Womack’s slowed-down torch on Billy Joe Shaver’s “Ride Me Down Easy” showed the grace beneath the black leather and the sneer.