RCA
2003
Lonesome, On'ry And Mean
About This Album
The remastered reissue of Waylon Jennings' first, largely self-produced effort from 1972 is remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which is how well it holds up over 30 years after it was recorded. Lonesome, On'ry and Mean is the first album of Jennings' renegade, unprecedented contract with RCA. Jennings was a star who carried weight and basically was ready to go and make records in New York or L.A. if he wasn't given complete artistic control of his recording process. Three of the cuts here were recorded before the new deal, and he left them: "Gone to Denver," penned by Jennings and Johnny Cash; "Lay It Down"; and Willie Nelson's "Pretend I Never Happened." Jennings produced the last of these, but two producers he disdained, Donny Davis and Ronnie Light, had worked on the other two tracks. The album kicks off with the title track, Steve Young's quintessential anthem, the very song that started the entire outlaw movement. Young, a true renegade picker to this day, may have gotten financial recompense for the song, but it was his song and his own arrangement that Jennings used and Young has never been properly recognized outside of Jennings' own for his contribution; on the Jennings tribute album of the same name, and at Jennings' funeral, Young was not asked to perform it, despite the fact that his two recorded versions are better than any others -- this one not excepted.
Track List (try tracks 5,6,7,8 and 10)

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