Outlaw country
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Outlaw country was a significant trend in country music during the late 1960s and the 1970s (and even into the 1980s in some cases), commonly referred to as The Outlaw Movement (both by fans and by people in the music industry) or simply Outlaw music [1]. The focus of the movement has been on self-declared "outlaws," such as Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Willie Nelson and Billy Joe Shaver. The reason for the movement has been attributed to a reaction to the Nashville sound, developed by record producers like Chet Atkins who softened the raw honky tonk sound that was predominant in the music of performers like Jimmie Rodgers, and his successors such as Hank Williams, George Jones and Lefty Frizzell. According to Aaron Fox (2004, p.51) "the fundamental opposition between law-and-order authoritarianism and the image of 'outlaw' authenticity...has structured country's discourse of masculinity since the days of Jimmie Rodgers."
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[edit] Seeds of change
The 1960s was a decade of enormous change and the change was reflected in the revolution in the music of the time. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones cast off the traditional role of the recording artist. They wrote their own material, they had creative input to their albums, they refused to conform to what society required of its youth. At the same time, country music was declining into a formulaic genre that appeared to offer the establishment what it wanted with artists such as Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton making the kind of music that was anathema to the growing counter culture. While Nashville continued to be the heart of country music, some would say its soul was to be found in Lubbock, Tulsa and Austin.
[edit] The rise of the outlaws
The term "outlaw country" is derived from the song "Ladies Love Outlaws" written by Lee Clayton and sung by Waylon Jennings on the 1972 album of the same name. It became associated with singers who grew their hair long, wore denim and leather and looked like hippies in contrast to the clean cut country singers in Nudie suits that were pushing the Nashville sound. The success of these singers did much to restore the rawness and life force to country music. The songs were about drinking, drugs, hard working men and honky tonk heroes. The music was more like rock and roll and there were no strings in the background.
[edit] Waylon, Willie and friends
Although Jennings and Nelson are regarded as the stereotypical outlaws, there were several other writers and performers who provided the material that infused the movement with the outlaw spirit. Some people have noted that Jennings and Nelson were Nashville veterans whose careers were revived by the movement and that they drew on the energy that was being generated in their home state of Texas to spearhead the attack on the Nashville producers. Jennings, in particular, forced his record company to let him produce his own albums. In 1973 he produced Lonesome, On'ry and Mean. The theme song was written by Steve Young, a songwriter and performer who never made it in the mainstream, but whose songs helped to create the outlaw style. The follow up album for Jennings was Honky Tonk Heroes and the songwriting hero was Texan Billy Joe Shaver. Like Steve Young, Shaver never made it big, but his 1973 album Old Five and Dimers Like Me is considered a country classic in the outlaw genre.
Although, this genre of Country Music was mainly a male-dominated genre, there were two women in the Outlaw country genre; Sammi Smith and Jessi Colter. Sammi Smith's breakthrough cam in 1971, with the success of the Country crossover song "Help Me Make It Through the Night", written by fellow outlaw Kris Kristofferson. Jessi Colter's best-known song is another crossover hit "I'm Not Lisa". However Colter's recording career was brief, spending more time with her husband Waylon Jennings.
Willie Nelson's career as a songwriter in Nashville peaked in the late 1960s. His "Crazy" was a massive hit for Patsy Cline, but as a singer, he was getting nowhere. He left Nashville in 1971 to return to Texas. The musicians he met in Austin had been developing the folk and rock influenced country music that grew into the outlaw genre. Performing and associating with the likes of Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey and Billy Joe Shaver helped shape his future career. At the same time as Nelson was reinventing himself, other significant influencers were writing and playing in Austin and Lubbock. Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore formed The Flatlanders, a group that never sold huge numbers of albums, but continues to perform. The three founders have each made a significant contribution to the development of the outlaw genre.
Other Texans, like Townes van Zandt, Guy Clark and later, Steve Earle, have developed the outlaw ethos through their songs and their lifestyles.
Kenny Rogers had developed a style similar, in many ways, to "outlaw country", mixing traditional country with rock, pop and even disco. However, he was considered too commercial by some in the industry. Despite becoming the biggest Country star in the world, he was snubbed every year by the Country Music Association for the prized "Entertainer Of the Year" Award (despite winning in other categories). Rogers himself later commented that hurt him. However, he did win that award from the CMA rival, the Academy of Country Music.
[edit] A new Outlaw Movement?
New artists, such as Roger Creager, Kevin Fowler, Shooter Jennings, Wade Bowen and groups such as Randy Rogers Band, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland & the Stragglers and Eli Young Band, who grew up during the original outlaw movement, have recently been re-energizing the Outlaw Movement and keeping with the "outlaw spirit". Also, older artists such as Ray Wylie Hubbard, Billy Joe Shaver and David Allan Coe have also been contributing to the resurgence of the outlaw sound. Many fans (most of which feel they're also being oppressed, but can't "fight the system" and "survive,"[citation needed]) have embraced this "New Outlaw Movement". Because many of these artists are native Texans or call Texas their home, it is often referred to as Texas Country. Pat Green is most notably credited with bringing Texas Country out of the honky tonks and onto college campuses. Green's shows in the late 90's began to increase with incredible popularity on college campuses in Texas like Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University (his alma mater) and the University of Texas. This notoriety gave more exposure to other Texas Country artists like Cory Morrow, Roger Creager, and Kevin Fowler and groups like Cooder Graw.
In 1998, maverick Fort Worth, Texas, Texas record executive Rick Smith launched the "Live at Billy Bob's Texas" series of recordings, which have featured the likes of legends such as Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe and popular Texas artists like Pat Green, Jack Ingram, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland & the Stragglers, Cooder Graw, the Randy Rogers Band and Kevin Fowler. These recordings, along with a fertile musical climate in Texas, have sparked a ressurgence in the rough and tumble anti-Nashville sentiment of country music, featuring the World's Largest Honky Tonk, Billy Bob's Texas, as the home for this movement.
Other Texas based artists, such as Steve Earle, Eleven Hundred Springs, Wayne "The Train" Hancock, Dale Watson, Stoney LaRue and Hayes Carll continue the tradition of their Outlaw Country forebearers in Texas and have helped usher in the movement in honkytonks across the U.S.
Other artists, such as Hank Williams III, Scott H. Biram, Bobby Bare Jr., Lucinda Williams, Miss Derringer, Justin Otto and Rodeo Kill continue the Outlaw Country way, by staying out of mainstream country music and continue to break the rules of traditional country music by combining country elements with punk and rockabilly into a style sometimes referred to as alt-country.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Country Music. The Rough Guide,
Kurt Wolff, Rough Guides, 2000, ISBN 1-85828-534-8 - The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock,
Jan Reid, University of Texas Press; New edition, 2004, ISBN 0-292-70197-7
[edit] Source
- Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate,
Washburne, Christopher J. and Derno, Maiken (eds.), 2004, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-94366-3.- Fox, Aaron A. "White Trash Alchemies of the Abject Sublime: Country as 'Bad' Music"
[edit] External links
- Outlaw country history
- AMG essays on country music themes
- Americana Music News, Reviews, Interviews and Podcast Shows
[edit] Listen to
- KHYI 95.3 The Range "The 50,000 Watt Blowtorch of Twang" Classic Country and Americana Music
- Roy Harter's Outlaw Hour 10 pm - 11 pm UK time Every Sunday night.
- 96.3 KSCS Classic Country Saturday Night 7pm-12 Midnight Central Time Country classics with "the Trooper." Dallas, Texas
- Len Brown's Country Roots, Friday mornings on KOOP-FM, Austin
- RAM Radio Traditional country music from the 1920s to the present.
- Heartland Public Radio's Classic Heartland Radio station with classic country legends from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, live from Branson, Missouri.
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