Shooter Jennings and Waymore's Outlaws set to groove Off Broadway
The
only son of country legends Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, Shooter
Jennings literally spent his childhood on a tour bus. Born Waylon
Albright Jennings, Shooter was playing drums by the time he was five
years old and had already begun taking
piano lessons
, only to break them off and follow his own path to an understanding of the instrument.
He discovered guitar at 14 and rock & roll (particularly Southern
rock and the loose-limbed hard rock of Guns N' Roses) at 16. Soon he
moved from Nashville to L.A., where he assembled a rock band called
Stargunn. Stargunn
earned
a strong local reputation for its live shows, and enjoyed a six- or
seven-year run on the L.A. circuit before Jennings rediscovered his
outlaw country roots and dissolved the band.
After a short stay in New York, where Jennings assembled material for a
country project, he returned to L.A. and put together a second band --
this time with solid country roots -- which he named the .357s. Jennings
and the band holed up in the studio, eventually emerging with a
rambunctious country album called Put the O Back in Country, which was
released in 2005 on Universal South Records. Following in his father's
footsteps, but with his own feisty, scrappy sense of country, Jennings
placed himself in a fine position to both explore that legacy and carve
out his own. A second album, Electric Rodeo (which was actually recorded
before Put the O Back in Country), appeared in 2006, followed by a live
set, Live at Irving Plaza, later in the year. Jennings' third solo
effort, The Wolf, was released in October 2007, featuring a cover of
Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" (whose composer, Mark Knopfler, had been a
longtime family friend). A month later, Jennings became a father. His
girlfriend, actress Drea De Matteo, gave birth to Alabama Gypsy Rose in
November. He proposed to De Matteo in 2009 on-stage in Utica, New York.
He renamed his backing band Hierophant for his fourth studio album,
Black Ribbons, a concept record produced by Dave Cobb. It appeared early
in 2010. Later in the year, the album was re-released in a special
edition entitled Black Ribbons: The Living Album. The second version was
sold on a USB flash drive in the shape of a tarot card. It featured the
studio record and live performances by Hierophant. In early 2011,
Jennings and blogger Adam Sheets came up with the idea of creating XXX, a
new radio format that would focus on insurgent country, rock, and
hybrids of both, from new and established artists, that fell far outside
the narrow conceits of mainstream radio and were thus ignored. It
gained traction and a channel on Sirius/XM where both men served as
program
hosts.
Jennings also moved to New York City with De Matteo. He and pianist
Erik Deutsch formed a new band, called the Triple Crown, and he became a
father for the second time to Waylon Albert "Blackjack" Jennings, in
April. In urgent fashion, Jennings and the Triple Crown began recording;
they released the video/download-only single "Outlaw You," his screed
against the country music establishment. It reached the top spot on
CMT's daily audience request competition and stayed there until a
dispute with his former label dictated it be removed. The first official
single from the forthcoming album, "The Deed and the Dollar," again
reached the top spot in the daily CMT request competition. Jennings'
fifth album, Family Man, followed soon after in March of 2012 -- minus
"Outlaw You." His next album, The Other Life, was released a year later
on his own Black Country Rock label; it featured guest appearances from
Patty Griffin, Scott H. Biram, and Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas. The
Other Live, Jennings' second live album, recorded during his 2013 tour
and featuring many of the songs from The Other Life, appeared early in
2014, again from Black Country Rock.
Waymore’s Outlaws
Richie
Albright, Waylon’s original drummer, longtime friend, and right-hand
man, joined Waylon and The Waylors in 1964. Richie not only toured and
recorded with Waylon for decades, but produced or co-produced many of
Waylon’s records that are still being played on radio today. In the
world of country music, Richie has made history as a drummer,
songwriter, and producer. The list of artists he has played and/or
recorded with is long, to name a few would include- Jessi Colter, Willie
Nelson, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams Jr, Tony Joe White, and Goose Creek
Symphony. Richie continues to produce and perform after a long career
which spans fifty years, and over forty albums.
Jerry "Jigger" Bridges, who spent a little over two decades out on the
road with Waylon, plays bass and tour manages Waymore’s Outlaws. A
native of Red Bay, Alabama, Jigger was strongly influenced by the
R&B emerging from nearby Muscle Shoals. Following a four-year stint
as a staff musician at FAME Recording Studio, he moved to Nashville and
began working with Waylon on the “Dukes of Hazzard” soundtrack. After
his contributing bass work on Waylon’s Greatest Hits album, Richie and
Waylon asked Jigger to join The Waylors on the road.
Fred Newell is a bona fide veteran of the Nashville studio scene who has
recorded with everyone from Ray Charles to George Strait. In addition
to being the staff lead guitarist on numerous TV shows including
Nashville Now, he is respected worldwide for his ability to generate
feeling and sounds out of his instruments that many struggle to emulate
without success. The first country guitarist to ever receive an
endorsement from Marshall Amplifiers, Newell is a guitar legend in many
circles. He is unique in that he is considered not only a legendary
guitarist, but also one of the top steel players of all time. Fred,
having recorded many albums with Waylon, joined Waylon's touring band on
pedal steel during the 90’s after the late and legendary Ralph Mooney
had retired from the road.
Tommy Townsend, their lead guitarist and singer, is a native of
Blairsville, GA. Waylon was a pivotal force in Townsend's life as Tommy
had the distinction of being mentored by Waylon in his youth. The two
collaborated several times over the years, with Waylon playing guitar
and singing harmony on some tracks, and co-producing an album on Tommy
with Jerry Bridges. Waylon and his band took Tommy under their wings
recording in the studio, and occasionally, out for appearances on the
road. As a songwriter, Tommy co-wrote three of the songs on Waymore's
Outlaws CD, "Same Ol' Outlaws".
Tortuga (Michael Patrick Leahy 7SS)
Music
project fronted by Mike Leahy (frontman of 7 Shot Screamers, and, by
some accounts, the man behind the makeup of a certain infamous clown).
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