Waylon Jennings The Face Of The Outlaws From Music Historian Scott G Shea

Arroe Collins Unplugged and Totally Uncut

Waylon Jennings. The face of the 1970s Outlaw Country Movement was barely known outside of Nashville when he took the stage at Max’s Kansas City in New York City in, the nightly hangout spot for avant-garde artist Andy Warhol and his Factory brood, in January 1973. This musical hotbed of the glam rock movement, which also helped launch the careers of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Emmylou Harris and others, was the unlikeliest place for a country and western singer, but Waylon passed muster. In his latest article for the Strange Brew, music historian Scott G. Shea breaks down this legendary performance that lifted Waylon into the public consciousness, but perhaps more importantly, lays out the dozen or more years of trial, error and frustration Waylon went through to get to this point.

I would love to coordinate having Scott G. Shea, leading music historian and author of the best-selling book, “All the Leaves Are Brown: How the Mamas & the Papas Came Together and Broke Apart,” on your program to discuss the long and complicated rise of Waylon Jennings; from Nashville outsider to international superstar and father of Outlaw Country. Scott beautifully sets the scene of how the young singer came to Nashville from Phoenix in the mid-1960s and overcame its tight studio system with help from some pretty incredible people.