On Monday, July 6, 2015, a collection of music’s legendary outlaws and rising superstars came together for a once-in-a-lifetime concert event at ACL Live At The The Moody Theater in Austin, TX, to honor Waylon Jennings, one of the most influential musicians of the Outlaw Country movement. The concert event was filmed and recorded for multi-platform distribution throughout traditional and digital media.
OUTLAW: CELEBRATING THE MUSIC OF WAYLON JENNINGS featured performances by: Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Toby Keith, Eric Church, Kacey Musgraves, Ryan Bingham, Sturgill Simpson, Jamey Johnson, Lee Ann Womack, Chris Stapleton, Shooter Jennings, and Jessi Colter.
Grammy Award-winner Don Was served as co-music director and led an all-star band backing the performers at this concert event. Legendary music producer Buddy Cannon also served as co-music director. “Waylon Jennings was my friend, brother, and musical soul mate”, said Willie Nelson. “Playing his songs with these incredible artists, is going to be one hell of a concert event.”
On Friday, April 7, 2017, the two-hour broadcast premiere will air on CMT at 10 pm ET/PT, and Sony Legacy will release the concert film as a CD/DVD combo / digital download which is available for immediate preorder.
The full length concert film features performances 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, & Bobby Bare. See the official trailer.
The CMT premiere and DVD both include a range of Jennings classics, such as “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys” (performed by Willie Nelson and Toby Keith), “Lonesome, On’ry And Mean” (performed by Eric Church), “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” (performed by Chris Stapleton), a very special performance of “Highwayman,” (performed by Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Shooter Jennings and Jamey Johnson) and an all-star grand finale performance of “Luckenbach, Texas.”
In a heartfelt reflection on the project, Jessi Colter recalled a beautiful lyric she wrote – “You did hang the moon, didn’t you Waylon?”