Father & Sung

This summer, another posthumous project hits the streets with the release of Waylon Forever, a nine-song album of Waylon Jennings originals and unlikely covers that finds the outlaw-country legend backed by son Shooter Jennings and his band, the .357s. “This album really got its start back in 1995,” the country-rocker recalls, “when Dad asked me to do an album with him. At the time, I was 16 years old and way into Nine Inch Nails and Guns N’ Roses, but [Dad] was really excited to do something together. So I came up with all these ideas for new arrangements of his songs and a few covers. I got the idea for slowing down ‘Don’t You Think This Outlaw Shit’s Done Got Out Of Hand’ from Johnny Cash doing ‘Hurt.’ The idea for ‘White Room’ came one day when I was driving around Nashville. I didn’t know shit about Cream or Disraeli Gears at the time, but I heard it on the radio and knew we could do it.”

The father/son duo recorded the tracks in hopes of issuing the finished product as an album, but the tapes sat dormant for more than a decade and Waylon died in 2002 before they were completed. Shortly after the younger Jennings recorded his 2006 album Electric Rodeo, he transferred the tapes to Pro Tools and convened his band in Nashville to cut new backing tracks for his father’s vocals from the 1995 collaboration.

“This album is all about revisiting and re-appreciating the time we had together during the original sessions,” Shooter says. “The intent of those sessions back in ’95 was all about us getting together to play some music, and it really had nothing to do with trying to sell records. Dad was just happy to be doing a record with his son. I may not have appreciated it as much as I should have then, but I couldn’t be happier to be doing a record with him now. It’s like I’m finishing the job we started together.”