{"id":2066047,"date":"2025-10-03T06:50:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T06:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2066047"},"modified":"2025-10-03T06:50:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T06:50:55","slug":"waylon-jennings-lost-recordings-brought-to-life-on-new-album-songbird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/waylon-jennings-lost-recordings-brought-to-life-on-new-album-songbird\/","title":{"rendered":"Waylon Jennings\u2019 lost recordings brought to life on new album &#8216;Songbird&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>More than two decades after his passing, Waylon Jennings\u2019 voice returns today with the release of \u2018Songbird,&#8217; a newly unearthed collection of recordings that captures the outlaw country legend at the height of his creative powers. Compiled and mixed by his son, 3x GRAMMY\u00ae Award-winning producer Shooter Jennings, the album features material recorded between 1973 and 1984, a period when Jennings was redefining both his career and the very sound of country music.<\/p>\n<p>The project arrives with the unveiling of \u2018The Cowboy (Small Texas Town),&#8217; a song written by Johnny Rodriguez during the sessions for Jennings\u2019 1978 chart-topper \u2018I\u2019ve Always Been Crazy.&#8217; For Shooter, the track perfectly frames his father\u2019s story. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautifully simple song that tells the story of an artist from humble beginnings uniting both sides of the aisle over music,\u201d he says. \u201cThe first half tells my dad\u2019s tale pretty simply. The second half really turns the heat up. It\u2019s got one of my favorite lines I\u2019d heard in a long time about the \u2018white collar people.\u2019 It fits more today maybe than it did when it was written.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Waylon Jennings - The Cowboy (Small Texas Town)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5lGzz0ogp4Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The centerpiece of \u2018Songbird&#8217; is its title track: Jennings\u2019 tender take on the Fleetwood Mac classic. Originally previewed earlier this year, his version was widely praised for its haunting intimacy, anchored by Ralph Mooney\u2019s pedal steel, plaintive piano, and Jennings\u2019 unmistakable baritone. Shooter invited contemporary artists Elizabeth Cook and Ashley Monroe to add new harmonies, creating a cross-generational collaboration that bridges past and present. The single was hailed by outlets including Rolling Stone, Variety, and Holler, the latter declaring it \u201cnothing short of perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What makes \u2018Songbird&#8217; unique is not only the music but the story of its discovery. In 2024, Shooter began digging through hundreds of his father\u2019s high-resolution multitrack recordings at Sunset Sound Studio 3 in Hollywood, where he had just begun a residency. Expecting to find a handful of forgotten gems, he instead uncovered what he describes as \u201can audio record of an incredibly profound artist and his legendary band through their peak period of creative expansion.\u201d These weren\u2019t rough demos but fully realized sessions recorded on Waylon\u2019s own terms\u2014without label interference, with his band The Waylors by his side, and often with close collaborators like Richie Albright and Jessi Colter.<\/p>\n<p>Shooter\u2019s work on the project became a way of reconnecting with his father\u2019s artistry. \u201cWhat became very apparent to me was that my dad was recording constantly with his band The Waylors between tours,\u201d he explains. \u201cThese weren\u2019t just scraps. These were songs cut with the intention of releasing. As the years went on, not all of them found places on albums at the time.\u201d With help from engineer Nate Haessly, Shooter began shaping the archive into a cohesive record.<\/p>\n<p>To complete the vision, Shooter reunited several surviving Waylors\u2014guitarist Gordon Payne, bassist Jerry Bridges, and keyboardists Barny and Carter Robertson\u2014who added finishing touches to the tracks. The album was then mixed \u201cin a purely analog fashion\u201d on Sunset Sound Studio 3\u2019s vintage 1976 DeMedio API mixing board, preserving the warmth and grit of the original tapes. \u201cThe hard work is there on the tapes,\u201d Shooter says. \u201cThe passion and the soul within is as alive today as it was the day it was recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Songbird&#8217; is more than an archival project\u2014it\u2019s the beginning of what Shooter promises will be three entirely new albums of Waylon Jennings music. By shaping these recordings into finished works, he has created what he calls \u201cthe first of three gifts\u201d to the fans who have kept Waylon\u2019s spirit alive. \u201cThis project has given me an entirely new chapter in my relationship with my father,\u201d he shares. \u201cWorking on this music has brought a whole new understanding about how, when and why my dad made music.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Waylon Jennings - Songbird (Official Music Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r6OlvttAEvo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>For Shooter, the goal is simple: to return Waylon Jennings\u2019 voice to the modern world. \u201cThe next few years are going to be full of some of the most exciting musical moments that the world never knew they were going to hear,\u201d he promises. With \u2018Songbird,&#8217; listeners not only hear Waylon Jennings as he sounded at his creative peak but also feel the timelessness of his message. As Shooter himself puts it in his letter to fans: \u201cEnough explaining, just put the damn record on\u2026 and remember: Waylon Jennings is still the king.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source entertainment-focus.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than two decades after his passing, Waylon Jennings\u2019 voice returns today with the release of \u2018Songbird,&#8217; a newly unearthed collection of recordings that captures the outlaw country legend at the height of his creative powers. Compiled and mixed by his son, 3x GRAMMY\u00ae Award-winning producer Shooter Jennings, the album features material recorded between 1973 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2066048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[339645,363700],"class_list":["post-2066047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-shooter-jennings","tag-waylon-jennings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Waylon-Jennings-lost-recordings-brought-to-life-on-new-album.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2066047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2066049,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066047\/revisions\/2066049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2066048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2066047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2066047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2066047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}