Rom Wills

Waylon Jennings If any one performer personified the outlaw country movement of the '70s, it was Waylon Jennings. Though he had been a professional musician since the late '50s, it wasn't until the '70s that Waylon, with his imposing baritone and stripped-down, updated honky tonk, became a superstar. Jennings rejected the conventions of Nashville, refusing to record with the industry's legions of studio musicians and insisting that his music never resemble the string-laden, pop-inflected sounds that were coming out of Nashville in the '60s and '70s.

Waylon Jennings If any one performer personified the outlaw country movement of the '70s, it was Waylon Jennings. Though he had been a professional musician since the late '50s, it wasn't until the '70s that Waylon, with his imposing baritone and stripped-down, updated honky tonk, became a superstar. Jennings rejected the conventions of Nashville, refusing to record with the industry's legions of studio musicians and insisting that his music never resemble the string-laden, pop-inflected sounds that were coming out of Nashville in the '60s and '70s.

A series of Willie Nelson concept albums originally rejected by his record company forms the basis for a fascinating anthology. Willie Nelson: A Classic & Unreleased Collection includes Sugar Moon, an unreleased album of Western swing classics recorded with Merle Haggard's band, the Strangers; a would-be sequel, Willie Sings Hank Williams; the likewise unreleased Willie Nelson Live at the Texas Opry House; and unissued outtakes from various sessions, early songwriting demos, plus his very first single. First offered for sale in 1994 on the home-shopping channel QVC, an expanded, annotated version has finally been made available to retail outlets. The set brings to light a treasure trove of Nelson's unreleased work for Atlantic Records, to which Nelson was signed in 1972 by legendary R&B producer Jerry Wexler to launch a new country division.