They craved a return to country's rootsy, rebellious spirit. Fueled by this desire, a group of iconoclastic singers, most notably Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, broke free from the Nashville…
Hazel Smith, affectionately known as the "mother hen" of country music, wasn't just a publicist, journalist, or cookbook author; she was a force of nature who nurtured and championed the…
Artists like Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser bucked Nashville's music row and birthed a movement
Michael Martin Murphey, a Texas singer-songwriter and a true-blue cowboy, took us on a journey through a significant portion of American folk music spanning the past century. Along the way,…
By John Wesley Karson The start of the Outlaw movement doesn't have a definitive date, as opinions vary depending on who you ask. However, a significant milestone often associated with…
Waylon Jennings' 1972 contract negotiations with RCA Records parallels Ayn Rand's novels and philosophy of individualism, particularly those in "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged."
By John Wesley Karson Introduction: Located in Austin, Texas, The Armadillo World Headquarters holds a special place in the history of American music and counterculture. From its humble beginnings in…
Jerry Jeff Walker moved to Austin, Texas in 1971 and in the process helped reinvent a sleepy college/state capital town into a robust, music hotbed. He became recognized as the…
Today, they don't seem like outlaws: Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, Jr., David Allan Coe, Tompall Glaser, Johnny Paycheck and numerous others are…
The term outlaw country wasn't thrown about too often in the early days. According to Jason Mellard, author of Progressive Country: How the 1970s Transformed the Texan in Popular Culture, the…