More than 20 years after he died in the Valley, country legend Waylon Jennings’ music is about to come back in a big way.
His son, musician Shooter Jennings, announced Sunday – fittingly, on Father’s Day – that a new project devoted to lost and forgotten studio tapes Waylon recorded will yield three new albums of unreleased music, the first of which will come out in October.
Before then, a new single, “Songbird,” a cover of the Fleetwood Mac classic and part of the unreleased tapes, was released Sunday along with a new music video.
Shooter revealed that in July of 2024 he’d encountered hundreds of his father’s unreleased studio recordings and has been listening to and cataloging them since.
“I was hoping that I might find some recordings that the world had not heard before. What I found was an audio record of an incredibly profound artist and his legendary band through their peak period of creative expansion,” Shooter posted to Instagram Sunday.
At the time of the recordings, Shooter explained, Waylon and his band The Waylors were recording between tours. Waylon had just won a battle with his record label, RCA, for complete creative control and he recorded in his studio with his band and on his terms.
Not all of the songs found their way to Waylon’s albums.
“As my dad’s career went on, and the sound of the mid- to late-80s marched on towards a new digital recording frontier, these classic recordings were put to rest,” Shooter said in his post.
While most of the songs were fully finished, some “needed something else.” Shooter brought in some of the remaining Waylors (Jerry Bridges, Carter and Barny Robertson, and Gordon Payne) to help put on the final touches. Other friends, Elizabeth Cook and Ashley Monroe, were brought in to assist with “Songbird.”
“‘Songbird’ is the beginning of Waylon’s return to the modern world,” Shooter added. “The next few years are going to be full of the most exciting musical moments that the world never knew they were going to hear.”
Shooter mixed the tapes in vintage analog fashion on a custom 1976 mixing board inside Sunset Sound Studio 3 in Hollywood.
Waylon famously started his career as a solo artist in Phoenix.
While he was a member of Buddy Holly’s backing band and the two became very close, Jennings was devastated when Holly died in the famous 1959 plane crash that also claimed the lives of Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. Jennings left music altogether, moved to Phoenix, and became a radio deejay.
Before long, through, Jennings picked up his guitar again. He and an early version of The Waylors became huge stars in Phoenix, where he recorded his debut album, “Live at J.D.’s.” Though the album wasn’t actually recorded live as the title suggests, it was dedicated to the nightclub in Tempe, J.D.’s, where Jennings was a star and from where he sold copies of the record at his live appearances.
With his star very much on the rise, Jennings was gaining popularity outside of the Valley.
In his 1996 autobiography “Waylon,” Jennings recalled his last time performing as a local singer in Phoenix. In 1966 RCA had declared March as “Male Singer Month,” which helped the label grab 10 of Billboard’s Top 25 spots, including from Jennings.
This June 1995 file photo shows Waylon Jennings performing in Nashville, Tennessee. Jennings, who defined the outlaw movement in country music, died Feb. 13, 2002, at 64.
(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
By early April he knew the upcoming weekend of gigs would be his last as a local performer when he played J.D.’s a final time.
“It was monstrous. The word was out that this was gonna be my fare-thee-well stand, and they packed close to two thousand people upstairs,” Waylon wrote.
“You can’t do it any other way. When they go that crazy, you can’t give them any less than your best, a hundred and twenty percent instead of a hundred and ten. It was a hell of a three days. People were happy for me; but there were a lot of folks crying in their beer because I wasn’t going to be theirs anymore. I kind of missed that part myself.”
Jennings returned to the Valley in the years after that, including a celebrated return to a packed Mr. Lucky’s music nightclub on Grand Avenue in Phoenix in 1980.
“Songbird” will be the first of three albums of unreleased material when it comes out Oct. 3. Along with the new single released on Sunday came the official “Songbird” music video.
Fans can preorder the album here.
Jennings recorded 60 albums, earned 16 No. 1 country hits and won two Grammy Awards in a career spanning six decades. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame shortly before his death and is widely regarded as a pioneer in the country-rock crossover style.
Years later he later moved back to the Valley and died peacefully at his home in Chandler in 2002 at age 64. He is buried at Mesa Cemetery.
Steve Stockmar
News Editor | Sun Life Magazine & Arts & Entertainment
YourValley.net
sstockmar@iniusa.org
Meet Steve
Steve Stockmar joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2017, and has been an Arizona journalist for almost 30 years. He serves as editor of Sun Life Magazine and contributes to West Valley communities where he focuses mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference.
Community: Every season Steve serves as a “buddy” with the Miracle League of Arizona in Scottsdale, has volunteered his time with Family Promise in Glendale, and previously served on the Ghostlight Theatre board in Sun City West.
Education: Graduated from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff with a Journalism major and English minor.
Random Fact: Steve once won a 50-player live Texas Hold ’Em poker tournament.
Hobbies: Anguishing over his beloved Chicago Cubs and Bears; listening to Beatles and Grateful Dead music.
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