“Outlaw Country,” just like country music, has evolved markedly from the initial core “group” of musicians. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash are often grouped in this subgenre based on their country supergroup “The Highwaymen.” Much of this “outlaw” brand stems from their fierce musical independence and desire to produce music without the interference of buttoned-up Nashville production companies. In Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever, Brian Fairbanks discusses this desire for musical independence, but takes it a step further into a political realm that drifts from the intent of outlaw country’s origins.
Each of the four individuals in “The Highwaymen” had winding roads before becoming recording stars in country music, largely through their determination to call their own shots and work with those in Nashville who were willing to take chances on music. This part of Fairbanks’s book is probably the strongest - the musical creativity of each of these men was able to beat back the “Countrypolitan” sounds that Nashville recording executives wanted. Through their ability to break barriers musically, Nelson, Jennings, and Cash were able to reach huge levels of success and in vastly different ways. One example is how Cash found a third musical peak late in his life recording with producer Rick Rubin.
Had the book simply focused on artist independence in country music and one’s ability to do it their way, while keeping politics to a relative minimum, I feel this book would have been much stronger. The original outlaw country genre had a diaspora of political opinion. Jennings was rather apolitical in public (although the author tries to peg him as “far right” without offering anything to back it up). Cash and Nelson had their causes but didn’t necessarily identify with one party or another in their career peaks, while Kristofferson was a liberal. Reading through the author’s lens, you sense a left-of-center view in how he defines what passes as outlaw country in today’s era. Outlaw country isn’t simply being critical of conservative views and being marginalized; it’s music that is country without apology and without being consulted to death by a major recording label executive. One’s politics shouldn’t be a litmus test.
MY RATING: 3.5
