Outlaw Country

Various (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 1, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony Legacy
• ASIN: B0013HWQU6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,288 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The most celebrated tracks by Country Music's most famous and infamous musicians! The genre the changed country music forever is back with this new single CD, just in time for the 75th birthday celebrations of one of the movement's leading renegades - Willie Nelson. Features 20 tracks that broke the rules of traditional country music and restored its rawness and life force - including all the greats, from Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash to Travis Tritt, Steve Earle and Gretchen Wilson! These are the songs that started outlaw country and that carry on the family tradition! Get the tracks that put outlaw country on the map.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic songs - not always "country" though, May 21, 2008

By 

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Outlaw Country (Audio CD)

This is a good set of rowdy songs, with classics by Waylon, Willie, Jessi Colter and the boys, as well as a slew of other folks feudin' like the Hatfields and McCoys... The songs are generally high-calibre, but I agree with other reviews that this collection really stretches its credibility by calling them all "outlaw country" when indeed a hefty chunk of the playlist is really made up of Southern rock and redneck boogie tunes -- Marshall Tucker's "Can't You See", Molly Hatchet's "Flirtin' With Disaster" and the Georgia Satellite's "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" are prime examples of Top 40 rock songs that are dubious inclusions in a "country" collection. In the 1970s, the longhairs who were into Willie Nelson might have also been rockin' out to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers, but everyone knew there was a difference between the two genres.

Still, it's a fun album, and since the macho end of modern, 21st Century Top 40 country is frequently peppered with retro-leaning Southern rock, the revisionist blurring of the two genres isn't all that hard to understand. So it comes as no surprise (and a singular delight) that Gretchen Wilson is included ("Here For The Party") although once you go down that path, one might wonder why no tracks by Montgomery Gentry or Dierks Bentley made the grade as well.

There are some great songs on here -- and there could have been a bunch of others. As with any thematic collection, there's lots of room to quibble over song selection. The tracks by Johnny Paycheck and David Allen Coe ("Take This Job" and "You Never Even Called Me By My Name") are solid choices, but both artists, as legitimate members of the original outlaw scene, have a lot of other songs that would have been cool, too. "Whiskey River" is a great Willie Nelson song, but it's more of a love song, if you ask me... etc, etc. I think a 2-CD set could have covered the ground more coherently and satisfied the diehard fans... But if you're just looking for a great set of rowdy twang tunes to crank up at your next backyard barbeque, this disc packs a lot of bang for the buck. (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue country reviews)

4.0 out of 5 stars Really more a mix of Outlaw Country and Southern Rock, January 7, 2012

By 

M. Hilbert "Those who fail history are doomed... (usa) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Outlaw Country (Audio CD)

They could have put some better music on here and should have put more Country than Southern Rock. There is a difference.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great songs, but stretches the definition of "outlaw", April 12, 2008

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Outlaw Country (Audio CD)

It's always been a bit ironic that "outlaw," the mark of individuality and rebellion against the constraints of Nashville's industry machine, became such a potent marketing device. Initially applied retroactively to a collection of works from Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser, "outlaw" grew to include anyone who wanted to position themselves (or, more often, have their record companies position them) as outsiders. Legacy's 20-track collection stretches the definition to include hippies (The Allman Brothers), rebels (Johnny Cash, The Marshall Tucker Band, Lynynrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, Gretchen Wilson), iconoclasts (Steve Earle, Billy Joe Shaver), malcontents (Johnny Paycheck, David Allan Coe), problem children (Tanya Tucker), new traditionalists (Travis Tritt), and Hank Williams Jr., who fits easily with the rebels, iconoclasts, problem children and malcontents.

Whether all of these artists are outlaws, in the sense originally applied to Jennings, is debatable, but for the most part, there is an outside, rebel spirit to these great tracks that does provide a theme. When the buck originally stopped with Jennings, he was forcing RCA's hand in a contract renewal, wresting away their overbearing control of songs, studios, producers and players. Freeing himself to record what he wanted, where he wanted, and with whom he wanted to play, Jennings' career blossomed into superstar success on his own terms. Opening this disc, Jennings' "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" gives Nashville one additional twist of the knife, chiding Music Row for its focus on flash and sizzle, while laying out his country ethos with forceful, quiet reserve.

Two of Jennings outlaw compatriots are also featured here, including Willie Nelson's well-known live take of "Whiskey River," and Jessi Colter's cover of Mickey Newbury's "Why You Been Gone So Long." The latter is full of twang and vocal fire, and was recorded two years before Jennings' "Ladies Love Outlaws" (from whence the tag was drawn), and six years before RCA pulled the tag out of their hat for the compilation "Wanted: The Outlaws." Marketing was apparently late to the outlaw party. Also featured here are Jennings and Nelson on the hit live version of their co-written "Good Hearted Woman."

Among the artists not originally marketed under RCA's outlaw banner, the renegade spirit of Billie Joe Shaver, Steve Earle and David Allan Coe fit most easily. Shaver's rough-and-tumble, autobiographical "I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train," has rightly become a classic, and Earle's "Copperhead Road," flush with rock energy and Celtic influences, was simply too eclectic and original for the Nashville mainstream. Coe sings Steve Goodman's "perfect" country and western song, "You Never Even Called me By My Name," name-checking Jennings and Coe himself before running through the hastily added last verse of mama, trains, trucks, prison and getting drunk. Coe's hit by way of Johnny Paycheck "Take This Job and Shove It" is also here.

The collection's southern rock tracks might feel more like outlaw to those raised in hippie hating states below the Mason-Dixon; coastal natives probably won't remember the Allman Brothers as rebels. Lynyrd Skynrd, on the other hand, managed to give pause to Southerners with their long hair, and to everyone above the Mason-Dixon with their songs of southern pride. Charlie Daniels wasn't quite as in-your-face with their roots, but "The South's Gonna Do It Again" certainly brags on its place (albeit with a more traditional western swing sound).

Of the set's recent tracks, Gretchen Wilson's redneck celebration "Here for the Party" might feel more calculated if Wilson didn't always seem to be the bona fide party girl of her lyrics. Shooter Jennings "4th of July" is more rock than country, and while it's refreshing to hear he's not simply aping his father's work, it's not clear why he's considered "outlaw." The same could be said for the Georgia Satellites "Keep You Hands to Yourself," which is a fine song, but doesn't seem particularly rebellious, and Molly Hatchet's "Flirtin' With Disaster" sounds more like prog-rock or heavy metal than outlaw country. The album closes with Johnny Cash's "Cocaine Blues," sung live at Folsom Prison, a true rebel singing for an audience of social outsiders.

This is a nice selection of tracks (albeit confined by the expense of inter-label catalog licensing), and though the title takes a bit of liberty with the "outlaw" label, the rebel spirit of country's original outlaws can be heard in most of the songs. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]