April is shaping up to be a full month of Frontier Partisan viewing — movies, TV, music. I’ll round it all up this weekend, but here’s one to punch in to the DVR, from Cowboys & Indians Magazine:
On April 7, CMT will broadcast Outlaw: Celebrating the Music of Waylon Jennings, a tribute concert that took place on July 6, 2015, live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas, honoring one of the most influential country artists of all time: Waylon Jennings.
The two-hour broadcast features performances of Jennings hits by Willie Nelson, Eric Church, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Kris Kristofferson, Toby Keith, Alison Krauss, Kacey Musgraves, Ryan Bingham, Jamey Johnson, Lee Ann Womack, Shooter Jennings, Buddy Miller, Jessi Colter, Robert Earl Keen, and Bobby Bare.
The set list includes Jennings classics from the career-defining “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” and “Lonesome, On’ry And Mean” to fan favorites “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” and “Highwayman.” The all-star closing number will take the audience back to Jennings’ roots with “Luckenbach, Texas.”
Jessi Colter’s memoir of her life with Waylon also drops in April. It’s good to see Hoss remembered. I sure do; listen to his music every day.
deuce says
That sounds like a hell of a show!
JimC says
Sure nuff!
J.F. Bell says
CMT going to air a program about actual country music?
What is this, April Fools?
JimC says
Hah!
Snowgoose says
I went to a Waylon Jennings show in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1980, at a time when it seriously stressed my budget. He had a cold or something and couldn’t sing and was so drunk he couldn’t talk. You might think he’d cancel or give a refund. But you’d be wrong. I have had no time for him ever since. Anybody who could be so cavalier toward an audience of fans gets no respect from me.
JimC says
Yeah, that’s too bad. There were some bad shows and no-shows in the early 80s when the cocaine addiction was at its worst.
John C. says
I am not usually a fan of covers, but this Henry Rollins cover of Lonesome, On’ry, & Mean just rips. Thanks for reminding me.
John C.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XhEO9XZ1zc
JimC says
That whole album was done well.
Betty says
I look up at my baseball cap with the wing logo on it, sitting on top of one of the speakers, and I still can’t believe we won’t get to hear another new Waylon.
Best memory. When “Luckenbach, Texas” first came out, we were traveling around central Texas. We found the little back road into Luckenbach and explored a tourist trap near the general store (they caught on quick, “Luckenbach, Texas” was looping over and over, and they had some typical souvenirs, which we bought).
We went into the front of the general store. The shelves were filled with old-timey products sitting just where they were abandoned when the store closed. The only things new for sale were bandanas and t-shirts with Luckenbach imprints. We looked at everything, heard voices as we wandered to the back, then found the bar in an old add-on down two steps from the store. A very nice lady gave us some Lone Star longnecks – to my mind the only proper bottle from which to drink beer – and sat down next to the potbelly stove to admire the decor. The indescribable decor. A standard to which we long years later judged the decor of our own bar attached to our garage, and we came pretty close.
The lady was handing beers out a window with a prop-up shutter to people outside. We could hear horseshoes clanking and loud cheering. A truly sudden rainstorm hit and presto, the little barroom was jam-packed with people. What a crowd, music, everything, then presto, they disappeared again, back to the horseshoes.
So of course we had to follow, plunked ourselves down on seats on a 3-tier bleachers set into the slope under a giganto oak tree. There was a long table set in front, people sitting around, I would judge mostly locals, or at least as local as Austin. Guitars came out, everyone sang along. Jim Luckenbach sat at the head of the table in a wheelchair. Everybody talked to everybody including us, and more Lone Stars got handed out the window. We had to leave, heading for Bandera and San Antonio, but we came back every time we were in that neighborhood again.
Our last visit, in the nineties, made me feel old. A bigger crowd, nowhere to park, a “destination” now, no longer a laid-back place to relax and watch the roosters climb the trees and everyone pitching horseshoes. I heard the inside of the store was the same, but I could not bring myself to go in and look. A big dancehall had appeared, and everyone treated the place like the background for a photo shoot. I’m sure today’s hipsters indulge in selfies with a quaint background of rusted metal Pepsi signs.
Never went back. This was one of the homes of my soul; and “you can’t go home again.” So we preserve it in amber and keep the spirit. Waylon might not have been the most sterling of characters, but he and Willie and Merle, Townes, all those folks, had a gift. A gift they gave to us.
We always joked about Waylon’s rocking-horse beat, Hank didn’t do it thataway, and good-hearted women tapped their toes to it, and the world still comes to Luckenbach, Texas, to hear the boys. But it’s big deal now, and we don’t do big deals.
Did you know there is no “Luckenbach” sign on the highway from Fredericksburg? It was stolen so many times they gave up finally. People still found the place even though it’s tucked away hidden in trees by a creek.
Well, thanks for listening. When you ever get back to Texas, look for Luckenbach. Come home and throw another log on the fire and tell me a story about what you found.
Betty says
Well, what did you think of the Outlaw concert?
JimC says
Haven’t watched it yet. It’s on the DVR, but I’ve been buried. Watched the premier of The Son last night. so, I’ll have to let you know in a day or two!
JimC says
Finally got to sit down and watch. Really enjoyed it. Crack band. Liked the song selection — got some deep cuts. Sturgill Simpson’s take on “Memories Of You And I” floored me. Highlight of the show for me.
Betty says
Ditto.
I felt some of the voices just did not work with the songs, but everyone’s obvious love for the music and delight in being there made it work for us. A keeper.
Wish Tompall could have been there.
JimC says
That’s a sad deal, the rift that never healed.