WAYLON JENNINGS
20th Century Masters (MCA)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Okay, this isn't the best possible collection of Waylon Jennings songs. In the first place, there are only eleven songs. Secondly, they're all from the mid-to-late 1980s. On the other hand, at its twelve-dollar budget price, it's a pretty spiffy set. This is music from a time when a newly clean-n-sober Waylon was certainly mellowing out, though he was still (and still is to this day) clearly flipping the bird to the Nashville establishment. For that reason, he was always an outlaw, beloved by his fans and hated by the country music powers that be, and as the song says, always "working without a net." Besides that classic, this CD contains "Rough and Rowdy Days," "Will The Wolf Survive," "What You'll Do When I'm Gone," "Rose In Paradise," "Trouble Man," "How Much Is It Worth To Live In L.A.?," "Which Way Do I Go (Now That I'm Gone)," "Fallin' Out," "You Put The Soul In The Song," and possibly his greatest song from this period, "If Ole Hank Could See Us Now." This shouldn't be the only Waylon Jennings CD you buy, but it sure ain't a bad addition to some of the other collections available.

© 2000 - DJ Johnson