The Rebellious Icons Of The Outlaw Country Genre
While country music has always been a deeply emotional genre, it’s fair to say that when the genre first rose to national popularity under the banner of Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and their contemporaries, it tended to be fairly wholesome in its presentation.
By the 1970s, however, that changed as the firebrands of progressive country gave way to a harder-edged approach to the genre that was gritty about its subject matter but no less soulful. It was similar to punk in what it rejected, but far more distinctly rural. This was the birth of outlaw country, and some of country’s biggest stars arose from this gritty subgenre.
Waylon Jennings
Perhaps the biggest originator of outlaw country, Waylon Jennings took his wild life and set it to music in the genre’s first platinum-selling album, Wanted! The Outlaws. That album saw him join forces with other artists who would become megastars in the genre at large.
Although Jennings’s narcotics habits became well-known by the time he kicked them in 1984, they were also the source of his real-life outlaw behavior. Although the DEA tried to bring Jennings down in a major arrest in 1977, they were unsuccessful because he had disposed of the evidence beforehand.
Willie Nelson
Although Willie Nelson famously wrote the song “Crazy” before Patsy Cline popularized it in 1961, he didn’t get his own big break as an artist until the 1970s. This came as a reinvention for the freewheeling artist, whose tender and serene yet independent spirit made him welcome to established country fans and outlaws alike.
Nelson is one of the first names in country people can think of, but that may not have been the case if he hadn’t reinvented himself for the outlaw set and joined Jennings for his landmark album, Wanted! The Outlaws. Since the Nashville establishment once didn’t give Nelson the time of day, he found his own way around.
Kris Kristofferson
Although the outlaw country movement’s name suggests a fascination with criminality, it had more to do with breaking away from what people understood country music at the time to sound like, whether stylistically or lyrically.
That’s why Kris Kristofferson was a pioneering figure in outlaw country, despite making music that was more introspective and philosophical in its gritty presentation than some of his contemporaries. Still, sad pieces like “Sunday Morning Coming Down” were well in line with the outlaw country spirit, as Johnny Cash’s best-selling cover version confirmed perfectly.
Hank Williams Jr.
Although Hank Williams Sr. was perhaps the most respected name from the golden age of country music, his son would prove an innovator in the outlaw country movement upon its emergence. Like Nelson and Jennings, Williams would take the freewheeling spirit and harder sound of southern rock and incorporate it into his father’s country legacy.
As a multi-instrumentalist who could play the keyboard and saxophone as easily as the steel guitar, there seemed to be any direction he could take his music in if he wanted to. However, the outlaw country movement he would help pioneer would be truest to his life.
Johnny Cash
Although Johnny Cash had already had a successful career before the advent of outlaw country and even inspired some of its biggest stars, the movement also reinvigorated his success. That’s partially because he thought of a landmark idea that pushed it further.
As he would document in the classic album At Folsom Prison, Cash pursued the brilliant idea to record his first live album at a prison. Although it was a big risk and similar concerts haven’t always gone well, the strongly performed, humanizing, and often funny results are now the stuff of legends.
Emmylou Harris
Like Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris didn’t fall in with the outlaw country crowd by making her music sound particularly edgy or dangerous. Instead, her sophisticated, genre-bending style and soulful vocal stylings made her a welcome collaborator for the others who more explicitly embodied the subgenre.
However, she was a pioneer in her own right, blending rock and country music before her outlaw country contemporaries added their gritty sheen to the practice. Although she had the voice of an angel, the earthy warmth of her music not only helped her fit in with them but dubbed her the “Godmother of Americana.”
Johnny Paycheck
Johnny Paycheck once described an outlaw as “a man who did things his own way whether you liked him or not,” and that was the way he lived and worked. Paycheck’s warm yet gritty style made him an icon of the working class, as he conveyed that he knew what it was like to live hard as much as they did.
That said, Paycheck’s life also fit the most literal definition of “outlaw country,” as in addition to alcohol and narcotics issues, there were multiple incidents that saw him get in serious trouble with the law.
Jessi Colter
Although there weren’t many female artists to emerge from the outlaw country scene of the ’70s, Jessi Colter’s entire career began under its auspices. That’s because meeting Waylon Jennings in 1969 was what compelled her to start a career in country music in the first place.
Colter quickly married Jennings and appeared on his famous Wanted! The Outlaws album alongside him and Willie Nelson. However, Colter would have a top-ten hit of her own after switching to Capitol Records and recording the 1975 song, “I’m Not Lisa,” which made it to number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the country charts.
Merle Haggard
While Merle Haggard didn’t explicitly embody the rhetoric of outlaw country for much of his career — and famous songs like “Okie from Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side Of Me” have an establishment-leaning bent — Merle Haggard still had the outlaw bona fides.
That wasn’t just because he began his country career shortly after getting out of prison, but also because his poetically written and credible songs about hard living emotionally resonated with the working class. It didn’t hurt that he often collaborated with other figures in the outlaw country scene, like Willie Nelson.
Tompall Glaser
Although he may not be the first name people tend to think of when they picture outlaw country, Tompall Glaser was there from the movement’s very inception. Not only did he appear on Waylon Jennings’s Wanted! The Outlaws album, but he also co-produced the album Honky Tonk Heroes for Jennings in 1973. This was one of the first outlaw country albums to ever exist.
As for his own work, Glaser recorded some material solo and others with his brother as part of the act, Tompall & the Glaser Brothers. He achieved a country hit with the Shel Silverstein-penned “Put Another Log on the Fire” in 1975, and made it to number two on Billboard’s country charts by singing “Lovin’ Her Was Easier (than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” with his brothers in 1981.
Guy Clark
Although Guy Clark’s career in the folk and country spheres began a little before the rise of outlaw country, it was a movement he was quite welcome. Indeed, that’s partially because so many of the others in that movement performed his songs.
Not only that but Clark would prove to be a mentoring figure to many of the scions of the outlaw country movement, with Steve Earle’s being the most notable among the ones he had directly influenced. That said, it’s hard to find any corner of the country world that doesn’t owe something to Clark.
Jerry Jeff Walker
Although Jerry Jeff Walker would grow to be a figure in the outlaw country scene, one of his most famous songs, “Mr. Bojangles,” came before it ever existed. Still, the fact that he was inspired to write it after meeting a New Orleans street performer while in jail for public intoxication in 1965 fits the movement he would eventually participate in well.
With that context in mind, it’s not so surprising that he started mingling with outlaw country figures like Guy Clark, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. The latter two even referenced “Jerry Jeff’s train songs” in the 1977 hit song, “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love).”
Lee Clayton
Although Lee Clayton released his first two albums in the same decade that the outlaw country movement took hold, he contributed to it more as a songwriter than as a singer, as the majority of his albums were recorded in the decades that followed.
Instead, Clayton’s key positioning in the early days of outlaw country saw him write songs for Waylon Jennings, most notably “Ladies Love Outlaws” in 1972 and “If You Could Touch Her at All” in 1974. He also wrote “Lone Wolf” for Jerry Jeff Walker.
Townes Van Zant
Although he lived his life under the thumb of many personal demons, Townes Van Zant’s outlaw-like indiscretions tended to be quieter and more sombre than those of his peers. Indeed, his music mirrored this demeanor, as Van Zant tended to sound more melancholic and poetic than hard-edged.
Nonetheless, the proud Texan fit the model by recording his music his way and by finding a way around the Nashville system to do it. His legacy is deeply enshrined in the country and folk scenes, and his fingerpicking guitar style was notably impressive even in his earliest years.
Steve Earle
Since his first album, Guitar Town, came out in 1986, Steve Earle was something of a latecomer to the outlaw country movement. However, from his progressive politics to his hard-edged vocal and lyrical styles, Earle embodied the spirit of everything that defined outlaw country.
Like some of the other outlaw country stars, Earle combined his country roots with more rocking styles to stand out as a strong artist with a groundswell of support from various alternative scenes. He also channelled the aftermath of his real-life addictions into a memorable role in the prestigious HBO drama The Wire.
