R.I.P. Nashville session guitarist Wayne Moss of Area Code 615, Barefoot Jerry

Sadly Nashville session ace Wayne Moss – who played the intro on Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman," and Dolly Parton's "Jolene" – has passed away at 88. 

Watch the trailer for way overdue streaming series "They Called Us Outlaws"

"They Called Us Outlaws" – reassessing the legacy of Billy Joe Shaver, Waylon Jennings, Guy Clark, etc – premieres at SXSW '26.

Happy Birthday Dale Watson!

Raising a bottle of Lonestar to honky tonk hero Dale Watson! Here's an interview, a chat with Otis Gibbs and some vintage clips.

Before They Were Famous: King Curtis

Before breaking out on his own, session ace King Curtis cut "June's Blues" with Jimmy Spruill & "Jole Blon" with Waylon Jennings.

Happy Birthday Ray Benson!

Celebrating the birthday of Asleep At The Wheel's Ray Benson with some performances, interviews and stories about his pals. 

Ray Benson shares stories about Waylon, Willie, Billy Joe, Hag & weird Austin

Asleep At The Wheel's Ray Benson gives Otis Gibbs the lowdown on the whole shootin' match in two entertaining sessions. 

Jessi Colter returns with Margo Price-produced Edge Of Forever album

Check out a few songs from Jessi Colter's new album Edge Of Forever – featuring Margo Price on three songs – out Friday.

A day in the life on the road with Jessi Colter, Shooter Jennings and Waylon Jennings. 

Happy Birthday Billy Joe Shaver!

Remembering singer/songwriter Billy Joe Shaver with an ACL split bill show (starting at 24:20), a chat about Waylon and more. 

That time Nikki Lane & Jaime Wyatt cruised with Junior Brown

Watch Nikki Lane and Jaime Wyatt sing "Waymore Blues" with Junior Brown on the Outlaw Country Cruise 3 back in 2018. 

Get tickets for Nikki Lane's upcoming Toronto show with Jaime Wyatt at the Horseshoe December 3 right here. 

Bob Stanley revisits late 60s country on Choctaw Ridge comp

Here's the scoop...

Choctaw Ridge – New Fables of The American South explores a new country sound, one that emerged at the end of the 60s in the wake of Bobbie Gentry's 'Ode To Billie Joe', a shock number one hit in 1967. When singers like Gentry, Jimmy Webb, Michael Nesmith and Lee Hazlewood moved from the south to Los Angeles to make it in the music business, they were not part of the Nashville in-crowd and they forged a new direction. 

'Ode To Billie Joe' was the tip of the iceberg, and it's success helped a bunch of singers and storytellers to emerge over the next three or four years. Some of the tracks on this collection bear that song's stamp more clearly than others: Sammi Smith's moody 'Saunders' Ferry Lane' had a similar mystery lyric, and Henson Cargill's 'Four Shades Of Love' is a portmanteau, with one (or possibly two) of the theoretically romantic situations ending in death. 

Suddenly, character sketches of southerners became a lot more rounded - women didn't have to stay home, or take abuse at the office, and darkness wasn't only found at the bottom of a bottle. Storytelling is the link between all of the songs on this collection. We have cautionary tales about what could happen to someone who heads for the bright lights and doesn't make it, ending up in the grasping hands of 'Mr Walker' (Billie Joe Spears), or on the 'Back Side Of Dallas' (Jeannie C Reilly), or on a mortuary slab in the case of the songwriter with the 'Fabulous Body And Smile' (Robert Charles Griggs). And there are stories about wanting to go home - Nat Stuckey's 'What Am I Doing In LA?' and Charlie Rich's 'Feel Like Going Home' - and others from Ed Bruce and Lee Hazlewood, who know that their home isn't home anymore. 

The tracklist and fulsome sleeve notes have been put together by Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne) and Martin Green (Smashing, The Sound Gallery), who have been collecting these records for decades. The voices are resonant and relatable, and the productions take in the best of what pop had to offer in the late 60s and early 70s. Before the factionalism between smooth pop-conscious Nashville and the hedonistic 'outlaws' made it look inward again, this was a golden era for an atmospheric, inclusive and progressive country music. It began on the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day.

Choctaw Ridge – New Fables of The American South, 1968-1973 is out July 30. Pre-order a copy directly from ACE Records right here. Watch Jeannie C. Riley perform "Back Side of Dallas" and listen to Sammi Smith's delightfully dark "Saunders' Ferry Lane" and Jim Ford's epic "Harlan County" – which is among the best of the bunch – following the track listing below.

Choctaw Ridge – New Fables of The American South, 1968-1973

01  The House Song - Lee Hazlewood

02  If Only She Had Stayed - Chris Gantry

03  Endless Miles Of Highway - Jerry Reed

04  The Back Side Of Dallas - Jeannie C Riley

05  Way Before The Time Of Towns - Hoyt Axton

06  Strawberry Farms - Tom T Hall

07  Down From Dover - Dolly Parton

08  July 12, 1939 - Charlie Rich

09  What Am I Doing In LA? - Nat Stuckey

10  Mr Stanton Don't Believe It - Rob Galbraith

11  Saunders' Ferry Lane - Sammi Smith

12  Four Shades Of Love - Henson Cargill

13  Drivin' Nails In The Wall - Waylon Jennings & The Kimberlys

14  Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town - Kenny Rogers & The First Edition

15  Why Can't I Come Home - Ed Bruce

16  Mr Walker, It's All Over - Billie Jo Spears

17  Harlan County - Jim Ford

18  Widow Wimberly - Tony Joe White

19  Belinda (Alt take) - Bobbie Gentry

20  Joanne - Michael Nesmith & The First National Band

21  Mr Jackson's Got Nothing To Do - John Hartford

22  Alone - Lee Hazlewood & Suzi Jane Hokom

23  Fabulous Body And Smile - Sir Robert Charles Griggs

24  I Feel Like Going Home - Charlie Rich

Shannon McNally launches her Waylon Jennings tribute with "Black Rose"

Shannon McNally's gender-flipped version of "Black Rose" puts a new spin on Billy Joe Shaver's tale of an interracial affair. 

Here's the press release...

“This is high art right here —cotton field disco perfection, the first generator in the county. The chorus on this song may be the best chorus of all time,” says Shannon McNally of Waylon Jennings’ “Black Rose”—a Billy Joe Shaver-penned tune she just cut with Buddy Miller for her new album, THE WAYLON SESSIONS. 

“‘The devil made me do it the first time, the second time I did it on my own.’ Talk about the fight for good and evil and staring the devil down at the crossroads.” The grooving, lazy two-step feel of the original is magnified in McNally’s new version, accented by blasts of harmonica and Miller’s slinky baritone guitar. 

“I wanted the video (watch it below) to have some levity and to capture the original intent of the song, which I’ve always interpreted as good-natured but risky,” says McNally, who dreamt up an elaborate backstory for the song’s short film and its characters. “I envisioned my character somewhere between Gina Davis and Woody Harrelson on the set of the Barney Miller show. It was quite liberating really. I like the image of the open cell door and the notion that essentially I’m policing myself, because isn’t that what the dance of acting right is all about?”

With THE WAYLON SESSIONS, McNally set out to revisit the songs and spirit of Waylon Jennings, a legend with whom she’s always had an ongoing fascination. “I have always loved his defiantly existential but immediately accessible common man’s music and how it boogies,” says McNally. But her collection of tunes ended up being not so much a tribute as it is a recontextualization; a nuanced, feminine rendering of a catalog long considered a bastion of hetero-masculinity. That’s not to say McNally has a softer, gentler take on Jennings’ songs—in fact, just the opposite. Over and over again, she manages to locate a smoldering intensity, a searing hurt buried deep within the music’s deceptively simple poetry, and she hones in on it with surgical precision on this new album, which features special guests including Jessi Colter, Buddy Miller, Rodney Crowell, and Lukas Nelson. “The world has changed a lot since these songs were first recorded,” says McNally. “I have never heard a woman sing any of them, but these tunes are poignant and relevant to me and to women in general right now. As a songwriter, bringing a song to its full potential so that a larger or different audience can connect is all I’ve ever cared about.”

McNally knew that assembling the right band would be essential to capturing Jennings’ mix of laid back charm and swaggering bravado, so she called AMA-winning guitarist Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart) to help her assemble a team that included drummer Derek Mixon (Chris Stapleton), pedal steel legend and longtime Jennings bandmate Fred Newell, Texas keyboard mainstay Bukka Allen (Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker), and bassist Chris Scruggs (Marty Stuart, Charlie Louvin). Working live and raw, they tracked sixteen songs in just five days, relying on instinct and intuition to guide their decisions at every turn. As brilliant as the band’s performances are, it’s McNally that breathes new life into the music here, tackling the tunes with an honesty and a maturity that transcends genre and gender. She doesn’t swap pronouns or couch her delivery with a wink; she simply plays it straight, singing her truth as a divorced single mother in her 40’s in all its beauty, pain, and power. 

“My goal wasn’t to force anything onto the music that wasn’t there already,” explains McNally. “There’s a feminine perspective hidden somewhere inside each of these songs. My job was to find a way to tap into that and draw it out.” The result is that rare covers record that furthers our understanding of the originals; an album of classics that challenges our perceptions and assumptions about just what made them classics in the first place. 

Pre-order Shannon McNally's THE WAYLON SESSIONS on Compass Records right here. Watch Shannon's video for "Black Rose" below. 

The Mavericks @ The Danforth Music Hall, Wednesday

Expect to hear Raul Malo and company performing many of their favourites from The Mavericks Play The Hits out now. 

R.I.P. Donnie Fritts, 1942-2019

Legendary Alabama songwriter/keyboardist and actor Donnie Fritts passed away Tuesday evening. He was 76. 

Shooter Jennings & Waymore's Outlaws hit The Phoenix January 22