If the heavy-hitters of outlaw country were acting like rock stars during their mid-'70s peak, then perhaps it was inevitable that the outlaws would start singing rock songs – which is precisely what Waylon Jennings did on 1976's Are You Ready for the Country. Although the title is taken from Neil Young's song – which provides an absolutely storming opener for this ten-song record – there is a bit of a jibe to its sentiment as well, since Waylon not only sings Young, but also the Marshall Tucker Band and Dr. Hook, along with reviving Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park." That selection of material indicates not just the increasing rock-isms of Waylon and the outlaws, it also indicates that Jennings' focus was beginning to blur slightly as he lost the sense of purpose that propelled his records of the first half the '70s, from The Taker/Tulsa to Dreaming My Dreams. Here, the music hasn't really changed, but the flow is no longer seamless and the shifting tones can be a little jarring.

Dreaming My Dreams was Waylon Jennings' first number one record, and deservedly so. He had created outlaw country with Honky Tonk Heroes, and then delivered two further albums that subtly developed its themes, even if they weren't quite as consistent. Dreaming My Dreams maintains the consistency, increasing the country quotient while subtly making it more sentimental than before. This is an unabashedly romantic album, not just in its love songs, but in its tributes to Waylon's heroes. "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" opens and "Bob Wills Is Still the King" closes the album – making Jennings an heir apparent to their legacies. Between those two extremes, Waylon appropriates Jimmie Rodgers ("Waymore's Blues"), covers Roger Miller ("I've Been a Long Time Leaving [But I'll Be a Long Time Gone]"), ups the outlaw ante ("Let's All Help the Cowboys [Sing the Blues]"), and writes and records as many sentimental tunes as possible without seeming like a sissy. At times, the emotional undertow may seem a bit much, yet the whole thing adds up as Waylon's best album since Honky Tonk Heroes, and one of the few of his prime outlaw period to deliver from beginning to end.

Waylon Jennings spent 20 years with RCA Records, signing with the label in 1965 and remaining with them until 1985, when he moved on to record for MCA Records. Needless to say, his key creative years were with RCA, particularly after 1972, when Jennings renegotiated his deal to give him more artistic control over what he produced. This box set package includes five of the resulting RCA albums that Jennings produced between 1973 and 1978, including 1973's Lonesome, On'ry and Mean, 1974's This Time and The Ramblin' Man, 1977's Ol' Waylon, and 1978's Waylon & Willie (with Willie Nelson), with whatever bonus tracks that were included on RCA's individual CD reissues of each album. It's a whole lot of Waylon, probably more than the casual listener would need and serious fans would most likely already have all of, but a big chunk of Jennings' legacy is here, so it makes an easy way to connect with his most creative period as an artist in one simple swoop.

It sat on the top of the country charts for 11 weeks and went double platinum, making it one of the biggest hits in either Waylon Jennings' or Willie Nelson's catalog. Years after its initial 1978 release, Waylon & Willie remains one of their biggest-selling albums, but its perennial popularity has more to do with their iconic status – something this album deliberately played up – than the quality of the music, which is, overall, merely good. Released in early 1978, a few months after Jennings' Ol' Waylon spent 13 weeks on the top of the charts in the summer of 1977, thanks in part to the hit single "Luckenbach, Texas" featuring a chorus sung by Nelson, the album was intended as a celebration of the peak of outlaw, but in retrospect, it looks like where the movement was beginning to slide into predictability, even if both singers are more or less in command of their talents here.

Tony Joe White says he always saw the friends he invited to play on this album–Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, J.J. Cale, Michael McDonald, and the late Waylon Jennings–as "keepers of the fire." They're also premier custodians of loneliness and despair, the two emotions that lie at the heart of this hypnotic submersion into country/swamp blues. From the kickoff track, "Run for Cover," with Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns, these meditations on mourning–lost lovers, spiritual struggles, anxiety that knows no name and no bottom–grab the listener fast and pull him down into swirling dark waters.

As seen on PBS. Chet Atkins - Certified Guitar Player is a concert-tribute to Chet Atkins, performed by Chet and many giants in the music business: Mark Knopfler, The Everly Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Michael McDonald, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson, backed by Nashville's premier studio musicians. Great music, great fun, and a moving experience as a joyful document created about Chet Atkins' importance in the history of music, and to everyone on that stage. The CD: contains the entire soundtrack of the program above. It has all the music (17 songs), all the interplay between Chet and his fellow stars, and all the excitement felt by the audience that night.

This double-disc reissue documents one of the more curious careers in country music. Both 1978's White Mansions and 1980's The Legend of Jesse James are Southern song cycles that were conceived by Britain's Paul Kennerley, then an unknown songwriter who somehow recruited a high-profile cast for each. A Civil War saga from the Southern perspective, White Mansions suffers from caricature and cliché but benefits from signature contributions by Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Eric Clapton. Jesse James has more focus and narrative momentum, with Levon Helm, Johnny Cash, and Emmylou Harris in lead roles. Though the albums are more noteworthy for artistic ambition than memorable material, Kennerley subsequently became a successful Nashville songwriter.

Legacy’s 2010 collection The Essential Highwaymen doesn’t merely cover recordings made by the supergroup of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, it rounds up selections from their solo albums of the ‘70s, ‘80s, ’90s, and 2000s. Specifically, these selections are written by other members of the group, so the net effect is a generous 36-track collection of Highwaymen highlights in all forms, drawing a more detailed portrait of their crossed paths than any individual album by the supergroup.

This album comprised the first full-length work by Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings as a duo, though they had previously worked together as part of the Highwaymen, the existence of whose three LPs may account for the relative neglect that Heroes has received. And it is one of the most obscure records in either artist's output, a fact that's astonishing, given the quality of the music, the singing, and the overall production. Co-produced by Chips Moman, and with Cash and Jennings at the top of their game (and so good at what they do that they make it sound easy), there's not a weak point anywhere here.

The Limited Deluxe Edition features 23 songs (an additional 7 songs) including all the original songs performed in the film by Jeff Bridges and Colin Farrell, "The Weary Kind" performed by Ryan Bingham (the theme song heard in the film's trailer and closing credits) and music featured in the film by Waylon Jennings, Lucinda Williams, Buck Owens, Sam Phillips and many more. It is packaged with a 12 page booklet featuring liner notes, lyrics and photographs. The soundtrack was co-produced by 10-time Grammy Award winner T Bone Burnett. Burnett, who co-produced the soundtrack with guitarist/songwriter Stephen Bruton. Synopsis Four-time Academy Award® nominee JEFF BRIDGES stars as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake, a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who's had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times.

When Waylon Jennings passed away in 2002, he was rightfully hailed as one of country music's first true "Outlaws" alongside such artists and fellow Highwaymen as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. But Jennings paid his dues on the Nashville scene before "crossing over" to superstardom with such landmark records as Dreaming My Dreams (1975), Are You Ready for the Country (1976), Ol' Waylon (1977), and I've Always Been Crazy (1978). Cherry Red's country-focused Morello label has already released two collections of four albums apiece chronicling Jennings' pre-outlaw days at his longtime home of RCA Victor. On February 11 (in the U.K.) and February 18 (in North America), the label will turn the clock back to the singer's first four RCA long-players on one 2-CD set: Folk-Country (1966), Leavin' Town (1966), Nashville Rebel (1966), and Waylon Sings Ol' Harlan (1967). It affords a great opportunity to revisit these early recordings in which Jennings was still developing his true voice.