Norah, Henry Salute Waylon
Former BR5-49 singer/guitarist Chuck Mead and engineer/bassist Dave
Roe have enlisted Norah Jones, Henry Rollins, John Doe, Kris
Kristofferson, Allison Moorer and others for Lonesome On’ry and
Mean: A Tribute to Waylon Jennings, due April 15th on
Dualtone.
For Mead and Roe, assembling the album is old hat. The pair were
responsible for last year’s Dressed in Black tribute to
Johnny Cash, which featured Hank Williams III, the Rev. Horton Heat
and Robbie Fulks.
On Lonesome On’ry and Mean, Jennings’ contemporaries
are represented by Kristofferson, who puts his stamp on “I Do
Believe,” and Cowboy Jack who does likewise with “Cowboy Sings the
Blues.” On the rock & roll side, Rollins covers the title
track, while Doe does “The Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line” and
former Blasters’ guitarist Dave Alvin does “Amanda.” Other
contributors include singer-songwriters Guy Clark (“Good Hearted
Woman”), Robert Earl Keen (“Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way”)
and Alejandro Escovedo (“Lock Stock and Teardrops”).
The fifteen-track album will also feature contributions by Nanci
Griffith, Radney Foster, Junior Brown, Carlene Carter and Jennings’
former bandmates the Crickets.
Lonesome On’ry and Mean is one of two Jennings tributes
due this year. Jennings’ label, RCA, will also release I’ve
Always Been Crazy in April. It features Metallica’s James
Hetfield, Kid Rock, Ben Harper and others.
Jennings, a country music legend credited with launching the
genre’s outlaw movement in the Seventies, died in February 2002 of
complications from diabetes.