Search - Waylon Jennings :: Are You Ready for the Country

Classic Waylon is the best music has to offer!

DanD | 03/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"ARE YOU READY FOR THE COUNTRY is advertised at Waylon's "mature" record, a transition from the outlaw status to the soft-hearted, world-weary singer. Yet, there's still enough grit on this album to show that Waylon never lost his sandpaper edge, that he could easily combine he reknowned attitude with a heavy heart.



Such songs as the Neil Young penned title track and the cover of Marshal Tucker Band's "Can't You See" are heavy on the country/rock, while "Them Old Love Songs" is a slow country ballad that'll take you back to the good ol' days. "Old Friend" is a tribute to Waylon's late friend "Buddy Holly," while "Precious Memories" is one of the few gospel tunes Waylon ever recorded (despite the fact his voice was made to sing the genre).



ARE YOU READY FOR THE COUNTRY has no downside to it. It is a collection of truly great songs sung by one of the best voices country music ever had to offer. Waylon Jennings left a huge legacy behind him, and this album is an example of Waylon at the peak of his talents."

(4.5 stars) WAYLON #*@%$*# JENNINGS. THAT'S WHO ! (an outlaw

ol' nuff n' den sum | the Virginia coast, USA | 12/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Waylon Jennings' Are You Ready for the Country (1976) is mostly an album of thoughtful and sentimental outlaw reflections, but it includes some songs that are on the rowdy side, too. Waylon looks back through his past in Old Friend, a song he wrote about Buddy Holly. Then he celebrates his wife in So Good Woman, and contemplates faith in the spiritual Precious Memories. Accepting the inevitable, he sings the lament of an aging outlaw coming to terms with the reality of a failed May/December romance in A Couple More Years.



I've walked a couple more roads than you baby, that's all

I'm tired of running and you're only learning to crawl

And you're going somewhere, but I've been to somewhere

And found it was nowhere at all

And I've picked up a couple of more years on you baby, that's all.



Jennings does a great version of Jimmy Webb's MacArthur Park (Revisited). Waylon had said he always thought of the sentimental classic as a country song.



I recall the yellow cotton dress

Foaming like a wave

On the ground around your knees

The birds, like tender babies in your hands

And old men playing checkers by the trees.



Are You Ready For The Country isn't all sentimental reflections and comfortable country songs, either. This guy can rock, too. Waylon was a member of Buddy Holly's touring band, and was giving 'em hell way back when rock n' roll was still in it's infancy. The title song was written by Neil Young, and this version sounds even better than Neil's. That's saying a lot coming from me, as Harvest is one of my all-time favorite albums. Waylon nails The Marshall Tucker Band's Can't You See, too, with a spirited vocal performance and highly charged backup from his band. It was during this mid-to-late 1970s period that Waylon Jennings recorded his best work (Dreaming My Dreams, Honky Tonk Heroes, Waylon Live, and others), and I would consider this album an essential part of that era."

My single all-time favorite Waylon Jennings album

Mike | San Jose, CA | 03/30/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was a fan of Waylon and his music, so I have the hits and concerts on CD. But this album really expresses his universal appeal. Like Johnny Cash, Waylon was a rock & roller just as much as he was a "country singer." For starters, Marshall Tucker's "Can't You See" is classic because he doesn't tack on an obligatory guitar solo. Who could top Toy Caldwell, anyway? This version is about the vocals, about Waylon's performance, about "what that woman is doing to him." "Precious Memories"...once again cross-referencing the many powerful spirituals recorded by his fellow Highwayman Johnny Cash...is a career-best performance. The title track...Neil Young's "Harvest" track "Are You Ready For The Country" is another Cash touchstone (any true Neil Young fan remembers his appearance on the genre-busting Johnny Cash TV show). Words can't express how much I miss Waylon Jennings. Some of his albums were hit and miss. Not this one. Get it."