Even if you’re not aux fait with country music, you will probably be aware of Waylon Jennings from his theme tune for the Dukes of Hazzard (he’s also the omniscient narrator - “It was right about now that the Duke Boys knew they was in a whole heap o’ trouble”).
In terms of country music history, this album marks the beginning of “outlaw” music, more to do with the performers making music without the restrictions placed upon them by Nashville than the themes contained in the songs. Not that, to me, it sounds particularly ground-breaking, but it goes into the slightly more rocky territory heard from the likes of Billy Ray Cyrus and later artists. Many of the tracks on here, however, are slower ballads, like We Had It All (which sounds a bit Elvis). Jennings’ voice comes across like Johnny Cash when he’s singing these.
The more up-tempo honky-tonk tracks are better – especially Black Rose (“The devil made me do it the first time, the second time I done it on my own”) and You Ask Me To (which feels like a Dolly Parton number). These, especially, are where you can hear the Dukes of Hazzard theme bleeding through.
I noticed Randy Scruggs in the credits, son of Earl Scruggs from Will The Circle Be Unbroken. And, for me, I prefer that old school Americana, the folk and bluegrass, to the more Nashville and beyond form of Country. It’s kind of odd coming off the back of a few albums of immersive prolonged instrumentals to something a lot more immediate.
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