Willie, Waylon, and the Boys: How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever

by Brian Fairbanks

The tragic and inspiring story of the leaders of Outlaw country and their influence on today’s Alt-County and Americana superstars, tracing a path from Waylon Jennings’ survival on the Day the Music Died through to the Highwaymen and on to the current creative and commercial explosion of Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Zach Bryan, Jason Isbell, and the Highwomen.
 

On February 2, 1959, Waylon Jennings, bassist for his best friend, the rock star Buddy Holly, gave up his seat on a charter flight. Jennings joked that he hoped the plane, leaving without him, would crash. When it did, killing all aboard, on "the Day the Music Died," he was devastated and never fully recovered.
 
Jennings switched to playing country, creating the Outlaw movement and later forming the Highwaymen supergroup, the first in country music, with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. The foursome battled addiction, record companies, ex-wives, violent fans, and the I.R.S. and D.E.A., en route to unprecedented mainstream success. Today, their acolytes Kacey Musgraves, Ryan Bingham, Sturgill Simpson, and Taylor Swift outsell all challengers, and country is the most popular of all genres.
 
In this fascinating new book, Brian Fairbanks draws a line from Buddy Holly through the Outlaw stars of the 60s and 70s, all the way to the country headliners and more diverse, up-and-coming Nashville rebels of today, bringing the reader deep into the worlds of not only Cash, Nelson, Kristofferson, and Jennings but artists like Chris Stapleton, Simpson, Bingham, and Isbell, stadium-filling masters whose stories have not been told in book form, as well as new, diverse artists like the Highwomen, Brittney Spencer, and Allison Russell. Thought-provoking and meticulously researched, Willie, Waylon, and the Boys ultimately shows how a twenty-one-year-old bass-playing plane crash survivor helped changed the course of American music.

• Publish Date: 4 June 2024
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Hachette Books
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 443
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Well Researched Book Does Exactly What The Description Says It Does. You know how at times you read a book's description and then you read the book and you want to know what the writer of the description was smoking when they wrote it and if you can have some of it, because the two were *nothing* alike? Yeah... this isn't that book.  

 

Here, you get *exactly* what the description (at least as of the writing of this review in the pre-dawn hours of May 12, 2024 along Florida's Atlantic Coast) tells you you're going to get: A well documented historical look at the lives of the Highwaymen - Waylon Jennings - where the narrative starts on the fateful night that he missed the plane on "The Day The Music Died" -, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson. We see each of their origins, we see how their careers progressed individually, and we see the fateful moment they all came together for a few legendary years. And in the end, we see how their lives and their music have impacted Country Music through the years, with a particular focus on 2010-current alt-country / Americana acts like Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Shooter Jennings, Brandie Carlisle, and others. Again, exactly what the description says we're going to get.

 

Overall the writing is well done - there's a lot of facts and a lot of quotes, but it never really feels like dense academic oriented text or a philosophical treatise, while still not being quite "conversational". Yes, the focus on certain acts and the clear derision of others in the end is perhaps quite divisive - even much of the "Bro Country" the author clearly despises cite many of the Highwaymen as direct influences, and yes, it can be heard in their sounds as well - but again, we knew from the description which modern acts this text was going to highlight. So take that as you will and make your choice to read or avoid this text knowing exactly that - you know up front exactly where this is going.

 

Very much recommended.