Outlaw Country

By the 1970s, singers like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson had had it with the narrow range of control that producers were allowing artists to have over their own music. Jennings rebelled by demanding creative control over his recordings, and his label relented. He replaced the cleanly, professional session musicians -- favored by producers -- with his much rawer road band, chose some meaty songs from the likes of Billy Joe Shaver, and coupled a spare, Neo-Cowboy sound with a deep rhythm and his own burly voice. The public ate it up; both classic Honky-Tonk fans and new generations of long-hairs were attracted to Jennings' beefy sound, biker image, and no-nonsense attitude. Likewise, Nelson, who moved to Texas from Nashville in the early '70s, devised his own slow-burning, back-to-basics cowboy style on albums like Red Headed Stranger and Phases and Stages.

The so-called outlaw movement culminated in a 1976 compilation album Wanted! The Outlaws that featured Jennings, Nelson, Tompall Glaser and Jessi Colter, but many of the original "outlaws" continue to tour and record. Alt-Country and Americana radio would be nowhere without the pioneering work of these country upstarts.