Outlaws Rise Again?
Various Artists
Outlaw Country
(Legacy)
Amazingly, “outlaw country” has failed to be legitimately co-opted. Rap has proven you can buy your way in and out of being gangsta, but country fans have always separated white-trash chic from legit white trash. Crossing the fence can rack you: No one considers Hank Williams Jr. to be anymore outlaw than Ann Coulter considers John McCain to be Republican.
The Legacy folks make a valiant attempt to extend the “Willie, Waylon & Me” era beyond the ’70s, but the result works better as a Southern rock mixtape than any sort of definitive cross-section. Shooter Jennings (“4th Of July”) — sure, he’s kin but did anyone hear that new album? Steve Earle (“Copperhead Road”) — if you’d a’asked 15 years ago, maybe, but “outlaw” and “outcast” are not synonymous. Jessi Colter (“Why You Been Gone So Long”) — fantastic, overlooked, overdue choice. Waylon’s wife stood by her man only after she kicked his drunk ass to the dirt. Gretchen Wilson (“Here For The Party”): Yeah, no. The Allmans and Molly Hatchet? That’s rock, brother. David Allan Coe and Johnny Paycheck could both be coarser (just guess which songs represent them). Billy Joe Shaver, Tanya Tucker, and Travis Tritt are wise choices, but what for Kris Kristofferson, Carl Smith, Townes Van Zant, and a whole buncha Texans?
— Steve Forstneger
