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by: L. Kent Wolgamott
“Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris and the Renegades of Nashville”
In the late ?1960s and early ?1970s, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson changed country music, bringing a whole new attitude to songwriting and the production of their records to hidebound Nashville.
Along the way, they and their fellow travelers, such as Kinky Friedman, Rodney Crowell and producer Cowboy Jack Clement, brought the counterculture to the buckle of the Bible Belt.
“Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris and the Renegades of Nashville,”? the entertaining new read from Michael Streissguth, tells that story. It does so in novel fashion — focusing on Nashville while taking a sojourn or two to Texas, the home state of its three main protagonists and Willie’s sanctuary when he lit out with his stash and guitar after his Nashville home burned.
That?’s a well-known story. Streissguth unearths plenty more that aren?’t as familiar — like the origins of Kristofferson’?s ?”Me & Bobby McGee,”? which involves a record executive, a secretary and Kris flying helicopters ferrying workers onto Gulf oil platforms. And how Jennings contributed to, if not caused, the retirement of Chet Atkins, the RCA label chief and producer who drove the machine that cranked out records with little control from the artists.
While concentrating on the trio of its title, Streissguth ventures into Nashville’?s West End to explore the music coming out of the bohemian district from the likes of Vanderbilt students Marshall Chapman and John Hiatt. He looks at the movie ?”Nashville”? and its contribution to the movement and, of course, finds the origin of ?outlaw.?
There are a couple of Nebraska connections in the story. One is songwriter Jim Casey, now back in Nebraska, who contributes some observations of rambunctious life on the outlaw scene.
More prominent is Tompall Glaser, Waylon’?s running buddy who provided the studio where Jennings did much of his work and, through their friendship, became the fourth artist included on ?”Wanted! The Outlaws,”? the 1976 compilation record that became the first million-selling country album.
By the time ?”Wanted!?” ran up the charts, the outlaw movement was largely over. The three primary artists were firmly ensconced in the mainstream. Nelson would go on to sell millions of albums and become a national icon.
The rebellion Streissguth delineates was over. But it?s legacy of artistic control and serious songwriting continues — at least with a few artists, such as Jamey Johnson, who resist the new Nashville machine much the same way Willie, Waylon and Kris did 40 years ago.