Outlaw country
Outlaw country | |
---|---|
Other names |
|
Outlaw country[2] is a subgenre of American country music created by a small group of iconoclastic artists active in the 1970s and early 1980s, known collectively as the outlaw movement, who fought for and won their creative freedom outside of the Nashville establishment that dictated the sound of most country music of the era. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and David Allan Coe were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
The music has its roots in earlier subgenres like Western, honky tonk, rockabilly and progressive country, and is characterized by a blend of rock and folk rhythms, country instrumentation and introspective lyrics.[3][4] The movement began as a reaction to the slick production and limiting structures of the Nashville sound developed by record producers like Chet Atkins.[3][5]
History
Some country fans consider outlaw country a slightly harder-edged variant of
The 1960s was a decade of enormous change, a change reflected in the music of the time. The Beatles, Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, and many who followed in their wake cast off the traditional role of the recording artist. They wrote their own material, had creative input in their albums, and refused to conform to what society required of its youth. One author states that the Beatnik movement, from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, was a precursor to outlaw country, as participants in both movements emphasized that they felt "out of place" in mainstream society.[9]
At the same time, country music was declining into a formulaic genre that appeared to offer the establishment what it wanted with artists such as
Origin of term
The movement was named, at various points, "redneck rock", progressive country, or "armadillo country", after the animal which would become the movement's unofficial mascot, before it was termed "outlaw country".[1] The origin of the outlaw label is debated. According to Jason Mellard, author of Progressive Country: How the 1970s Transformed the Texan in Popular Culture, the term "seems to have sedimented over time rather than exploding in the national consciousness all at once".[10]
The term is often attributed to "Ladies Love Outlaws", a song by
In 1976, the Outlaw movement solidified the term with the release of Wanted! The Outlaws, a compilation album featuring songs sung by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser. Wanted! The Outlaws became the first country album to be platinum-certified, reaching sales of one million.[12]
Development
As Southern rock flourished, veteran country artists incorporated rock into their music in this genre. Songwriters/guitarists such as
The outlaw country artists aimed to resist the big "machine" of the Nashville establishment, which "codified" norms of sounds, styles, and even appearance and behavior through influential "tastemaker" shows such as Grand Ole Opry.[15] The Grand Ole Opry, which was "staunchly conservative", used its influence over Nashville's Music Row to control who could play and what types of songs they could perform. Jennings described his experience in that city's recording industry as like working on an assembly line, in which records were produced like "clockwork".[15]
In 1973 Jennings produced Lonesome, On'ry and Mean. The theme song was written by Steve Young, a songwriter and performer who never made it in the mainstream, but whose songs helped to create the outlaw style.[citation needed] The follow-up album for Jennings was Honky Tonk Heroes and the songwriter hero was Texan Billy Joe Shaver. Like Steve Young, Shaver never made it big, but his 1973 album Old Five and Dimers Like Me is considered a country classic in the outlaw genre.[citation needed]
Willie Nelson's career as a songwriter in Nashville peaked in the late 1960s. As a songwriter, he had written a number of major pop-crossover hits, including "Crazy" for Patsy Cline and "Hello Walls" for Faron Young, but as a singer, he was getting nowhere. He left Nashville in 1971 to return to Texas. The musicians he met in Austin had been developing the folk and rock influenced country music that grew into the outlaw genre. Performing and associating with the likes of Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey and Billy Joe Shaver helped shape his future career.
Williams Jr. had long spent much of his early career in the shadow of his father Hank Williams Sr., who died when Williams Jr. was three years old. In 1975, Williams was severely injured in an avalanche while mountain climbing, disfiguring him to the point where he no longer resembled his father; he grew a beard to hide the scars, which he has maintained ever since. He also began collaborating with the other outlaws, beginning with his album Hank Williams Jr. and Friends released shortly before he was injured.
At the same time as Nelson was reinventing himself, other influential musicians were writing songs and playing in Austin and Lubbock. Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore formed the Flatlanders, a group that never sold huge numbers of albums, but continues to perform. The three founders have each made a significant contribution to the development of the outlaw genre. The Lost Gonzo Band and their work in conjunction with Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Murphey were integral in the birth of Outlaw Country.[16]
Other Texans, like Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle and Guy Clark, developed the outlaw ethos through their songwriting and ways of living.
Although Johnny Cash spent most of his time in Arkansas and Tennessee, he experienced a revival of his career with the outlaw movement, especially after his live albums At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin, both of which were recorded in prisons. Cash had working relationships with Nelson, Jennings and Kris Kristofferson in his later career, culminating in the formation of The Highwaymen; the four would record and perform as a supergroup in addition to their solo careers through the late 1990s. Cash had also been on good terms with several folk counterculture figures, a fact that irked Nashville and television executives (Cash hosted a variety show from 1969 to 1971). Like the other outlaw singers, he eschewed the polished Nashville look with a somewhat ragged (especially in later years), all-black outfit that inspired Cash's nickname, the "Man in Black".
Decline of the movement
The outlaw movement's heyday was in the mid- to late 1970s; although the core artists of the movement continued to record for many years afterward (Nelson, in particular, was recording hits well into the following decade while Hank Williams, Jr. achieved his greatest success during the 1980s), the outlaw movement as a
Related genres
The
Notable artists
See also
- Country rock
- Cowpunk
- Hillbilly
- Bluegrass music
- Bakersfield sound
- Southern Gothic music
- Americana
- Alternative country
References
- ^ Pitchfork. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
- ^ a b Szatmary, David P. (2014). Rockin' in Time. New Jersey: Pearson. p. 213.
- ^ a b "Outlaw music". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
- ^ ISBN 0062038192.
- ^ "Nashville Recording Industry | Entries | Tennessee Encyclopedia". Tennesseeencyclopedia.net. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
- ISBN 9781440636370.
- ^ Outlaw Country Music Genre Overview|AllMusic
- ^ "Waylon Jennings Dead at Sixty-four". Rolling Stone. February 14, 2002. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
- ^ Blair, Gregory. Errant Bodies, Mobility, and Political Resistance. Springer, 2018. p. 63.
- ^ ISBN 978-0292753006.
- ISBN 1858285348.
- ^ "Flashback: Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson Make Music History". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
- ^ a b Hughes, Charles L. Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South. UNC Press Books, 2015. p. 159
- ^ Garner, Kelly K. So You Want to Sing Country: A Guide for Performers. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. p. 17
- ^ a b Blair, Gregory. Errant Bodies, Mobility, and Political Resistance. Springer, 2018. p. 64
- ISBN 0-292-70197-7.
- ^ "Mickey Newbury : Omaha Rainbow Issue 13". Bitemyfoot.org.uk. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-930709-61-4.
- .
- .
- ^ O'Bannon, Ricky (April 17, 2014). "Remembering the Farm, the Oklahoma Commune Where Red Dirt Music was Born". Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on October 19, 2014.
Sources
- Fox, Aaron A. (2004). "White Trash Alchemies of the Abject Sublime: Country as 'Bad' Music". In Washburne, Christopher J.; Derno, Maiken (eds.). Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94366-3.
Further reading
- Reid, Jan (2004). The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock (New ed.). University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70197-7.
- Spong, John (April 2012). "That '70s Show". Texas Monthly. Austin, Texas. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
- Streissguth, Michael (2014). Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville. It Books.
- Wolff, Kurt (2000). Country Music: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-534-8.