New 6-Part, 12-Hour Outlaw Country Documentary On The Way
A new country music documentary is on the way, courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and executive producer Jessi Colter. Delving deep into the Outlaw era of country music like never before, They Called Us Outlaws will be a six-part series spanning 12 total hours, and include footage from over 75 hours of interviews conducted with artists old and new over a decade.
Some of the legendary country performers featured in the documentary include Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Emmylou Harris, along with artists who have since passed away, such as Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Tom T. Hall and Jerry Jeff Walker. Newer artists are included as well such as Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, Margo Price, and even actor and well-know Austin, TX resident Matthew McConaughey.
The series will be narrated by Texas music artist Jack Ingram, and Ingram also conducted some of the film’s interviews himself. “What really struck me, doing these interviews with my heroes, is the Outlaw movement and the era was a moment in time,” Ingram says. “I always thought, ‘Oh, we can keep swinging away and keep doing it,’ but when I was interviewing these guys, I realized very quickly that what they’re saying, that’s my inner voice. They’re saying things that I know are true and the whole idea of ‘being successful’ went away. . . . The heart of the matter is that you find your voice and speak your truth, and you make it rhyme and sing a song.”
The film was directed by Austin-based filmmaker Eric Geadelmann, known for the 2003 documentary The Dance about Billy ‘The Kid’ Roth. Geadelmann was also an associate producer of the 2015 Hank Williams biopic I Saw The Light. The Outlaw documentary will be released in partnership with Geadelmann’s Shadowbrook Studios.
Not many other details of the documentary series are available just yet, including when it will be released, and through what format or channel. This information is expected to be revealed in the coming months. But at 6 episodes and 12 hours, this documentary is almost as long as the Ken Burns country music documentary from 2019.
The documentary comes as the Country Music Hall of Fame’s current major exhibit called Outlaws and Armadillos focusing on the Outlaw era in country music and the Austin, TX connection comes to a close. It will be officially wrapping up on September 30th, and be replaced by Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country Rock focusing on the California country scene of the 60s into the 80s. The makers of the film held a discussion panel at the Country Music Hall of Fame about the project in 2017.
More details when they become available.
July 16, 2022 @ 8:46 am
Despite loving some Ken Burns documentaries (Vietnam, National Parks, and Roosevelts), I didn’t get into his Country Music series. I didn’t feel like Burns was qualified (or his staff) to tell me about country music.
This country music documentary has excellent credentials and I’ll be interested in watching.
July 16, 2022 @ 9:32 am
Maybe if Ken Burns and his staff play their cards right you could teach them everything they didn’t learn for doing over 175 hours of interviews with 101 country artists and writers!
July 16, 2022 @ 1:37 pm
Burns attempt felt too sterile and too massive of an undertaking by someone with no county music credentials. This documentary should be more focused and narrow in scope and directed by the people who were actually there.
That’s all.
July 16, 2022 @ 6:40 pm
What I thought he missed was “Mule Skinner Blues”. Jimmie Rodgers-check. Bill Monroe- check. Dolly Parton- check. Why did he miss The Fendermen? They are the only people to bring a Jimmie Rodgers song to Billboard’s pop top 10. (Unless you count Maria Muldaur. Her version of “Any Old Time” was the B-side of “Midnight At The Oasis”.
July 16, 2022 @ 6:50 pm
Maria Muldaur is the total ***t.
Midnight At the Oasis, one of the top songs of All time.
Humorous, puts a smile on your face. Makes you hunt down your old man, tackle him on the spot, put him to work.
: D
just sayin’
July 23, 2022 @ 6:05 pm
Not to mention the guitar solo by the great Amos Garrett.
July 16, 2022 @ 2:24 pm
How was Ken Burns “qualified” to do any of the topics he’s done? Did he create a national park? Did he fight in Vietnam? Did he help build the Brooklyn bridge? Play professional baseball? Fight in the civil war? I’m curious to know what qualifies someone to produce a documentary about anything, other than putting together a great research team and having top notch production skills, and Ken did both of those well.
July 18, 2022 @ 3:43 pm
“Money. Money changes everything.” Cyndi Lauper, 1984.
July 16, 2022 @ 3:42 pm
How ridiculous to doubt Ken Burns. I guess if he could yoddle he would be qualified. Stupid.
July 16, 2022 @ 7:38 pm
The Ken Burns series was good, but it was very PBS. Hopefully this one will have a little edge to it. But give Burns his due.
July 16, 2022 @ 10:11 pm
If anything his doc was not long enough. It spent a lot of time on the early years of Country Music but went way too fast when it hit the 70s.
July 17, 2022 @ 11:53 am
For everyone complaining about Ken Burns, check out the earlier BBC Lost Highways documentary series. It’s on youtube in various pieces. It’s really good because it was filmed 20 years ago when more of the original players were still alive, so you get less of the ‘famous fans’ commentary that you by necessity have to do if making a documentary long after the original people are gone.
July 16, 2022 @ 8:50 am
Long overdue. This should be epic.
July 16, 2022 @ 9:02 am
Random personal anecdote: I met the filmmaker of this at Under The Big Sky Fest last year in Montana waiting in line for food. He told me all about it, and how in depth it was going to be, and I almost didn’t believe him. It sounded too good to be true. Here a year to the day, we finally get some news about it, and I’m back out at Under The Big Sky.
PS: If approval of comments and other communications are slow, I apologize. Cell coverage sucks at this festival, but I will get to everything, just be a little patient.
July 16, 2022 @ 9:28 am
Sounds great though I’m wondering about some of the names mentioned. I don’t consider Tom t halls music outlaw music in anyway. I guess he could have an opinion on it but him, emmylou Harris, s one others just aren’t really part of that in my view anyway.
July 16, 2022 @ 9:46 am
I think they probably interviewed the sources available, and are not necessarily declaring Tom T. Hall and Emmylou Harris “Outlaws.” Both were around for that time, and can probably offer some insight. Sure, you would love to interview Waylon and Johnny Paycheck. But that’s a bit hard to do. And hopefully, like any good documentary, they let the story tell the story, and have the interviews compliment it, as opposed to letting the interviews drive the narrative.
July 16, 2022 @ 4:26 pm
Emmylou knew most of the key figures involved, including Waylon, and could talk with authority and from personal knowledge about the influence they’ve had and the resistance and obstacles they faced.
July 16, 2022 @ 5:07 pm
Ramona’s Revenge is pretty lyrically outlaw.
July 16, 2022 @ 6:42 pm
Not to mention “Turn it On, Turn it On, Turn it On”…
July 16, 2022 @ 9:38 am
If David Allan Coe isn’t in it I won’t watch. Keep me updated.
July 16, 2022 @ 1:26 pm
Coe AND Paycheck. Both criminally omitted from the Ken Burns doc.
July 16, 2022 @ 6:56 pm
I scrolled down to say the same thing.
July 16, 2022 @ 9:39 am
David,
Yeah, there will be a lot of hanger’s on and wanna-be’s. Should be an interesting watch nonetheless.
My personal definition of the outlaw movement: Waylon Jennings and everybody else.
July 16, 2022 @ 10:18 am
Yea you are probably right. Hopefully trigger is right and it’s more cause Tom and emmylou we’re around during the time. I don’t think those two themselves however would consider themselves part of the outlaw music though their music was and is not exactly mainstream. It should definitely be a good watch.
July 16, 2022 @ 9:39 am
If done the right way, this could be epic. Having Jessi Colter on board is a good sign. Gotta have Glaser Brothers and Hillbilly Central in the mix to be complete.
July 16, 2022 @ 9:48 am
This sounded awesome up until “Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, and Margo Price”. And I agree with Jon above about DAC.
July 16, 2022 @ 6:54 pm
Well, at least Isbell isn’t involved. Yet.
July 19, 2022 @ 7:52 am
couldn’t agree more. Eric Church? Jamey Johnson would be fine. But Eric and Miranda? And what about Hank Williams Jr.? Did I miss his name.
July 23, 2022 @ 9:02 am
I would Love to know when the Documentary is supposed to air. I certainly would love to watch it. If anyone knows let me know. Thank you very much.
July 16, 2022 @ 9:58 am
Well, this is exactly the kind of thing I would watch multiple times. Thanks for the info – will be watching closely for more details!
July 16, 2022 @ 10:24 am
Interesting. Hopefully Steve Young will have the respect and credit paid to him.
July 16, 2022 @ 10:44 am
“Newer artists are included as well such as Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, Margo Price, and even actor and well-know Austin, TX resident Matthew McConaughey.”
Laughing.
What a joke.
aka, the Matthew McConaughey, “I wanna be President” tape.
Amongst, other horse crap.
On another note, glad for you, that you were able to make Big Sky.
July 16, 2022 @ 10:45 am
I loved Ken burns series and I am in a country band with actual Nashville players. Ken did a great job getting to the roots of the music.but this will also be a good show with a different perspective. I look forward to watching.
July 16, 2022 @ 1:29 pm
After falling in love with country music in 2018, I absolutely adored the Ken Burns documentary, which helped broadened my country music horizons even more. I’m especially stoked on this news, as Waylon Jennings is, in my humble opinion, the greatest country star since Hank. Got his guitar tattooed on me a couple years ago. Can’t wait for this one.
July 16, 2022 @ 2:38 pm
If Jeremy Pinnell’s not in it then I won’t watch.
ps Check out Jeremy Pinnell’s album it rocks
July 16, 2022 @ 3:10 pm
“And if that ain’t country, I’ll kiss your ass”. If it doesn’t have DAC it is bullshit.
July 16, 2022 @ 3:24 pm
This will not be about real outlaw country if does’nt have the man who is better than Waylon and Willie Hank Williams Jr.
July 16, 2022 @ 10:09 pm
That’s a joke, right? A little sarcasm?
July 16, 2022 @ 3:33 pm
Vow, 12 hours! Really something to look forward to!
July 16, 2022 @ 4:15 pm
Any chance of Hank 3 being in this documentary?
July 16, 2022 @ 4:35 pm
Hopefully all the Hanks. Hologram Hank included.
July 16, 2022 @ 4:16 pm
I hope it’s super progressive and tells the story through a modern intersectional and anti-colonial lens.
Seriously though, I’ll watch and probably enjoy it, other than by comparison, being reminded how shit and weak ass our culture is now.
July 16, 2022 @ 5:47 pm
wait, this has Matthew McConaughey AND margo price?
All right, all right, all right.
i bet her segment consists of yelling at the documentary maker that he was not inclusive enough, is filming from a point of white male privilege, and is a raging misogynist. and he owes her reparations.
great doc, which happens to include two of the douchiest people on gods green earth.
July 16, 2022 @ 10:45 pm
We just had a 6-part 12-hour documentary on Outlaw country music announced, and folks are already complaining about who is in it, who is not, even though we know very, very little about it. 75 people were interviewed, and at this point, we know who less than 15% of them are. Also, this is a documentary, not just a series of interviews. It’s just one component of it. The folks trying to create buzz for it probably chose the flashiest names to reveal first. Let’s be a little patient and optimistic, and not look this gift horse in the mouth.
July 17, 2022 @ 8:09 am
“The folks trying to create buzz for it probably chose the flashiest names to reveal first” doesn’t really help the case or sound very reassuring. Hopefully they are less than brief cameos.
July 17, 2022 @ 9:44 am
I completely understand that as traditional country fans, Outlaw country fans, and independent country fans, we’re used to being let down, overlooked, disappointed, and under-appreciated. But I don’t understand why before we even have a release date or trailer for this film, some are choosing top pan it just because they gave Matthew McConaughey a 30-second cameo to try and generate some buzz about the project. If you’ve vacuumed up every single thing about the Outlaw movement like a Hoover, I’m not sure a documentary like this is for you anyway. This is to help spread the word about this important era in country music for the unacquainted and curious.
For fuck’s sake, let’s see what this has in store and be a little optimistic. If it sucks, I’ll be the first to say so. I think I was very fair calling balls and strikes on the Ken Burns documentary. But some folks just immediately looks for things to complain about. How about being happy about all the folks they talked to before they passed away?
July 16, 2022 @ 10:15 pm
Matthew McConaughey? Why do these docs always have to have some celebs that don’t really belong? I could say the same about Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, Margo Price but at least they play music and are influenced by the outlaw artists. Either way I look forward to it.
July 16, 2022 @ 10:51 pm
I like the idea of the project, but why would Eric Geadelmann agree to make Jessi Colter the “executive producer”? Makes no sense. She was a participant in the events and her late husband was central to the subject. And she’s in charge of the Waylon estate. She has a vested personal interest. I’d think that Geadelmann would want to keep his artistic and editorial independence.
July 16, 2022 @ 10:54 pm
Lol. Nothing screams outlaw more than Miranda Lambert, Eric Church and Matthew McConaughey. Church and Lambert are pretend outlaws (just like Shooter Jennings). And McConaughey…well, lol again.
July 17, 2022 @ 6:00 am
The Hall of fame had a kickoff to the Outlaws and Armadillos exhibit in the Rotunda Theater a few years back. I happened to be in town and attended. Jessi Colter spoke and introduced a preview screening to this documentary. They showed a small portion to us in the audience. As i recall, the part we were shown was all about Waylon and Willie. It was really quite entertaining and looks to be well made. There is extensive footage i had never seen, filmed back in the day. I remember thinking, this is gonna be something. Of course, the film was still in development at that point, so who knows what the final product will be, but im pretty sure this will be very cool. Great news!
July 17, 2022 @ 6:11 am
what is it about McConaughey? Why does he keep showing up like this?
July 17, 2022 @ 1:40 pm
i believe it was because Mickey Guyton was too busy being oppressed, to show up for the doc. so they went with future governor, ambassador and president McConaughey
July 17, 2022 @ 4:23 am
If Mickey Newbury is not included, the reasearch is incomplete.
July 17, 2022 @ 5:01 am
Can’t wait to watch it! Will be very interesting. Please post when it will air. And what channels it will be on
July 17, 2022 @ 5:21 am
i hope they talked with James Jennings, Waylon’s youngest brother, he has some great stories from that era
July 17, 2022 @ 6:11 am
You lost me at Miranda Lambert or Eric Church being “outlaws”.
July 17, 2022 @ 7:33 am
Nobody said Miranda Lambert and Eric Church were Outlaws. They may interview Bob Costas for a baseball documentary. That doesn’t mean Bob Costas is a baseball Hall of Famer.
Whenever they tease something like this, they’re going to throw the biggest, most recognizable names out there to create buzz across the zeitgeist.
July 17, 2022 @ 11:58 am
There needs to be a documentary about Outlaw Country Music Websites. You know where the website creator and author blows thousands a year on skinny lattes and deletes comments he doesn’t like, because 75 people might read it.
July 17, 2022 @ 1:02 pm
seems they didn’t interview anyone who actually did cocaine with Waylon, shot dice with Townes, did acid with Rusty Weir, watched Billy Joe threaten to kill a promoter and then pray with him outside Waco at this bucket of blood honky tonk, smoked pot with Willie (then again, not that outlaw, hasn’t everybody?), got drunk with Jerry Jeff and kinda remember him singing ‘pissing in the wind’ while he was pissing in the wind on the side of the road south of Dallas on the way to see Guy at some folk club there, was in an earthquake in California with B.W. Stevenson, actually cut his hand and pressed it against another cut hand and became a blood brother with Steven Fromholtz and..and..some other stuff..oh well.
July 17, 2022 @ 2:00 pm
Like i said earlier,
This is a joke, & laughable.
Basically, a campaign piece for McConaughey.
But, Geadelmann is going to pull one over on us, because he is Such a smooth operator.
Yeah, Ok.
We’re getting more history from what you just wrote, Ray Wiley, than a lot of the fluff, & personal agenda that will appear in Geadelmann’s doc.
p.s. loved your performance on ACL.
Also, love to watch your son play guitar
July 17, 2022 @ 3:06 pm
Ray, you are indeed in this documentary! And i saw clips of interviews with you in it. I saw some previews of this thing at The Hall of Fame in 2018 at a kick off event for the exhibit. All said and done, they interviewed 60 artists for this documentary. Just some of the folks interviewed included: Rodney Crowell, Ray Wylie, Steve Earle, Kristofferson, Michael Martin Murphey, Ray Benson, Larry Gatlin and Holly Williams. Theres also lots of older interviews with Waylon, Willie, Tompall Glaser and many others.
July 17, 2022 @ 1:44 pm
Fantastic! This has been a long time coming. Congrats to Erik!!
July 18, 2022 @ 6:17 am
So funny to see so many panties in a bunch w/ the inclusion of Lambert/Church. If you have listened to their music/songwriting it is easy to tell that yes they were/are influenced by many of the artists listed above Willie, Waylon, Jessie, Emmylou, Tom T Hall, Kristofferson, Guy, Jerry Jeff etc.
July 18, 2022 @ 7:58 am
Looking forward to this documentary. Durung the “Outlaw” years I programmed New York’s WHN radio which featured a “progressive Country’ nightline show and frequent concert broadcasts from the Lone Star Cafe featuring these artists . Hope they don5t forget David Allan Coe, a Nashville outsider often not given his due. Like many on this thread, I was very disappointed by Ken Burns’ “documentary”. I had a front row seat in Country music from the early 70s on and that’s just not the way it was. I had liked the previous Burrns shows but based on his Country show I am concerned they are likewise inaccurate
July 18, 2022 @ 9:00 am
Be nice if we knew when and where we could watch it
July 18, 2022 @ 9:32 am
That information isn’t available right now and is probably still being sorted out. As soon as we know, we’ll be blasting it out.
July 18, 2022 @ 3:41 pm
Definitely long overdue, because it will hopefully spotlight intensely that unique movement that broke the Nashville sequins & satin stranglehold on artists. I always felt there was a bit of a misconception that the “outlaw” vibe started with the famous 1976 album featuring Waylon, Willie, Jessi, and Tompall, but in fact that album sealed and culminated the longstanding efforts by those outsider artists, and the efforts they started in the very late 1960s: by 1980, “urban cowboy” and “countrypolitan” had taken over. “Outlaw” innovation had served its breakthrough purpose.
And the “outlaw” label itself is deceptive, in hindsight. If people simply take it to mean “hard-partying, drug-using, sleep-around musicians who created scandals” then they completely miss the boat. That label was applied to these specific artists because they were fighting to record their music the way THEY wanted—using their own songs, instead of establishment Music Row payrolled writers. They wanted their own touring musicians with them in the actual studio, instead of label-approved session musicians, and the results of their stubbornness gave the music a completely different, gritty, real, raw sound, and yet poetic in its own way. I mean, the straightest acts in Nashville in those days partied and boozed and used dope, but they weren’t musical outlaws. The label gets used too loosely, in retrospect. Tanya Tucker a musical outlaw? No way. Fine singer. She partied hard, sure. But she toed the Music Row line and didn’t write her own material.
Waylon, Willie, Jessi, Tompall, Billy Joe Shaver, David Allan Coe, Mickey Newbury, etc. were at the core of the actual writers pushing for something different because they did NOT fit the mold. By the mid-70s, Johnny Cash and Kris K had gone fairly glitzy “Hollywood,” with all due respect, with variety shows and films with Barbra Streisand, etc. That’s not meant in disrespect to them, but they were not at “outlaw” Ground Zero, musically, at the time.
It really was the work of Waylon and his cohorts, and that most certainly includes Colter, who doesn’t get nearly enough credit for her own innovative impact: Her hubby casts a deservedly long shadow, but her first three or four Capitol albums at the height of the “outlaw” fuss were entirely self-written and just as successful as his own. Few men and even fewer women on major labels in the ‘70s were writing entire albums with her consistent level of crossover success—depending completely on their own written material, no outside writers, and actually playing an instrument. Dolly and Loretta and Emmylou were not writing their entire albums, then. Emmylou was certainly not. Linda Ronstadt was not. And Colter’s deep cuts were far more like Leon Russell funk/rock and blues than her Gothic ballad hits (“I’m Not Lisa,” “What’s Happened to Blue Eyes”) bely. In that sense she had more of a Bobbi Gentry vibe. So I’m glad she’s producing this. She has said that she is determined to see Waylon get the same kind of iconic respect that Cash has been given since his passing, and I agree it’s high time.
At twelve hours, this documentary ought to dig into the nitty gritty of how those genuine rebels stirred things up in Music City itself—and made enemies because of their headstrong artistry.
As for “outlaws” today … I can’t see mainstream talents like Miranda Lambert, etc. claiming that title. Jamey Johnson for sure rates it. I’ll be interested to see how this docu plays out because that was a one-of-a-kind era and movement that set Nashville on its ear, never to be repeated.
August 7, 2023 @ 1:32 pm
Well heck, apparently I missed the boat again. Michael Banes mentioned in the first chapter in his book “The Outlaws-A Revolution In Country Music” that this Outlaw stuff started in Asheboro NC at WCSE. Back around late 1972 I was doing a late night show that I was calling Alternative Country Music. Hazel Smith, who was Waylon Jenning and Tompal Glaser’s publicist at the time, heard about it somehow and called and said start calling it Outlaw Music. So I did. Then apparently Hazel called other stations and started telling everybody, as publicists will do, that this Outlaw thing was really taking off. Of course there are a lot more details to this story but I didn’t know about it until my hometown newspaper called me after the book was published. I was clueless and a little pissed that my name was not mentioned in the book. Heck, ask Jesse Colter if she remembers me taking her son and Hazel’s son to Opryland when Hazel invited me to visit in Nashville. Lots of good memories from that time period. I was blessed with a lot of great stories but nobody to tell them to because I got out of radio a long time ago. To be honest, nowadays I can hardly believe it myself. Regardless, it was great times.
July 30, 2024 @ 12:39 pm
Any idea if this will ever get released? We’ve been waiting for two years now!
July 30, 2024 @ 3:33 pm
Yeah, not really sure what’s going on with this, but or what the delay is about. If I get an update I’m sure I’ll be sharing it with folks.