User:Julietvbarbara/sandbox/outlaw country

Outlaw country is a subgenre of American country music, most popular during the 1970's and early 1980's, sometimes referred to as the outlaw movement or simply outlaw music.

Early outlaw country is generally considered a reaction to the formulaic constraints of the Nashville sound. Notable outlaws from this time include Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Jessi Colter, Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe, Sammi Smith, and Tanya Tucker. [CITATION NEEDED].

Other associated artists who identified with the outlaw movement include the Eli Radish Band, Leon Russell, Townes Van Zandt, Billy Joe Shaver, Steve Earle, and Gary Stewart.

Outlaw country is characterized by a blend of rock and folk rhythms, country instrumentation, introspective lyrics, and local flavor.

History

The outlaw movement emerged in the late 1960s as a reaction to the slick production and popular structures of the Nashville sound. The movement's objective was to regain creative control in the recording studio at a time when Nashville producers often prescribed songs' length, structure, lyrical content, and production. Country musicians Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson are generally considered the leaders of this movement, but many artists would consider themselves outlaws throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

By the 1960s, Nashville was the center of the country music recording industry in the United States. Major record labels, most notably RCA records and Decca Records, led the establishment of the Nashville sound, which had replaced the fiddles and steel guitars of honky tonk with pop music structures and sounds, including strings, smooth choruses, and a basic rhythm section.

Beginning in XXX, [BRIEF OVERVIEW OF EFFORT TO REGAIN CREATIVE CONTROL]

According to Michael Streissguth, Jennings and Nelson became outlaws when they "won the right" to record with the producers and studio musicians they preferred.

Origins of term

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."

Many attribute the term's origin to "Ladies Love Outlaws," a song by Lee Clayton and sung by Waylon Jennings on the 1927 album of the same name. Another plausible explanation is the use of the term a year later by publicist Hazel Smith of Glaser Studios to describe the music of Jennings and Tompall Glaser. Art critic Dave Hickey, who wrote a 1974 profile in Country Music magazine, also used the term to describe artists who opposed the commercial control of the Nashville recording industry.

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 be platinum-certified, reaching sales of one million.

Characteristics

The instrumentation and sound of outlaw country varies based on the artist and time. Early outlaws were influenced by honky tonk music of the 1940s and 1950s, rockabilly of the 1950s, and the evolving genre of rock and roll, and by predecessors like Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, and Buddy Holly.

According to Aaron Fox, "the fundamental opposition between law-and-order authoritarianism and the image of 'outlaw' authenticity... has structured country's discourse of masculinity since the days of Jimmie Rodgers."

The outlaw movement was related to but distinct from the Bakersfield sound, a subgenre of country music that originated in California in the mid-1950s.

1960s

Beginning in the early 1960s, Texan musicians Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson established themselves as the first country "outlaws" in Nashville.

Jennings and Nelson signed with RCA records, and in 1965 Jennings began working with Chet Atkins, RCA producer and one of the creators of the Nashville sound. Atkins encouraged Jennings to pursue the folk-pop trend that was popular on college campuses and in major cities, and Jennings resisted.

[Johnny Cash? Hank Williams? Jessi Colter?]

[EXPLAIN: how they began to regain creative control from the Nashville recording industry. Jennings was able to secure his own recording rights....]

FROM ORIGINAL ARTICLE (no citations, need to update):

As Southern rock flourished, veteran country artists incorporated rock into their music in this genre. Songwriters/ guitarists such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Hank Williams, Jr. shed formulaic Nashville sound, grew long hair, and replaced rhinestone-studded suits with leather jackets. Fiercely independent, the "outlaws" abandoned lush orchestrations, stripped the music to its country core, and added a rock sensibility to the sound.

The 1960s was a decade of enormous change, and that change was also reflected in the music of the time. The Beatles, 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, they had creative input in their albums, and they refused to conform to what society required of its youth. 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 Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton making the kind of music that was anathema to the growing counterculture. While Nashville continued to be the focus of mainstream country music, cities like Lubbock and Austin became the creative centers of outlaw country. Southern rock also had a strong influence on the outlaw country movement, and that sound and style of recording was centered in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

It became associated with singers who grew their hair long, wore denim and leather and had a scruffier look in contrast to the clean cut country singers in Nudie suits that were pushing the Nashville sound, with the exception of Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers. The success of these singers did much to restore the rawness and life force to country music. The songs were about drinking, drugs, hard working men and honky tonk heroes. The music was more like rock and roll and there were rarely strings in the background.

1970s

FROM ORIGINAL ARTICLE (no citations, need to update):

Although Jennings and Nelson are regarded as the stereotypical outlaws, there were several other writers and performers who provided the material that infused the movement with the outlaw spirit. Some people have noted that Jennings and Nelson were Nashville veterans whose careers were revived by the movement and that they drew on the energy that was being generated in their home state of Texas to spearhead the attack on the Nashville producers. Jennings, in particular, forced his record company to let him produce his own albums. In 1973 he 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. The follow-up album for Jennings was Honky Tonk Heroes and the songwriting 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.

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. At the same time as Nelson was reinventing himself, other significant influencers were writing 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.

Other Texans, like Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle and Guy Clark, have developed the outlaw ethos through their songs and their lifestyles.

Cover of Jessi Colter's 1975 album I'm Jessi Colter.

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. He 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."

In 1976, the Outlaw Movement reached a new milestone 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 be platinum-certified, reaching sales of one million.

FROM "FEMALE OUTLAWS" SECTION (integrate details in other sections):

Jessi Colter was the wife of the Outlaw pioneer Waylon Jennings. She married Jennings in 1968. In the mid-70s, she pursued a solo career, and immediately achieved Outlaw status after she scored a #1 country hit, that also reached #4 on the pop charts, titled "I'm Not Lisa", which was penned by Colter herself. Her 1975 album I'm Jessi Colter showed more of Colter's Outlaw side showing Colter in a saloon-like setting, resting her arm on a piano. Colter officially gained full-on Outlaw status when she was featured on the compilation album, along with her husband, called Wanted! The Outlaws. The album was a huge commercial and critical success and won many awards.

Another woman who achieved the Outlaw success of her male counterparts was Sammi Smith, a singer from California. Smith was unafraid to sing songs that were considered too "risky" or spoke of the realities of the modern life. Her voice was husky from singing in smoky bars before she achieved fame. Smith made it big in 1971, when she recorded Kris Kristofferson's song "Help Me Make It Through the Night." The song brought Smith to the #1 spot on the country charts, and even made her a crossover star, at #8 on the pop charts. The song won her a Grammy award in 1972 for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. She officially became an Outlaw when she moved down to Texas and became fast friends with Willie Nelson. She regularly attended his Fourth of July picnics every year.

1980s

SAVE FOR LATER (deleted from earlier version of article):

Jessi Colter was the wife of the Outlaw pioneer Waylon Jennings. She married Jennings in 1968. In the mid-70s, she pursued a solo career, and immediately achieved Outlaw status after she scored a #1 country hit, that also reached #4 on the pop charts, titled "I'm Not Lisa", which was penned by Colter herself. Her 1975 album I'm Jessi Colter showed more of Colter's Outlaw side showing Colter in a saloon-like setting, resting her arm on a piano. Colter officially gained full-on Outlaw status when she was featured on the compilation album, along with her husband, called Wanted! The Outlaws. The album was a huge commercial and critical success and won many awards.

Another woman who achieved the Outlaw success of her male counterparts was Sammi Smith, a singer from California. Smith was unafraid to sing songs that were considered too "risky" or spoke of the realities of the modern life. Her voice was husky from singing in smoky bars before she achieved fame. Smith made it big in 1971, when she recorded Kris Kristofferson's song "Help Me Make It Through the Night." The song brought Smith to the #1 spot on the country charts, and even made her a crossover star, at #8 on the pop charts. The song won her a Grammy award in 1972 for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. She officially became an Outlaw when she moved down to Texas and became fast friends with Willie Nelson. She regularly attended his Fourth of July picnics every year.