New Unheard Waylon Jennings Song Emerges, Billboard Mystery Revealed

It was announced on June 15th, which happened to be Waylon’s Birthday, that not one, not two, but three full albums of unheard Waylon Jennings songs were on the way. Waylon’s son Shooter has unearthed a trove on previously-unheard Waylon Jennings recordings, and has gone through them to assemble them into albums. The recordings weren’t cohesive albums at the start. They were leftover recordings from various sessions throughout Waylon’s career.

The first installment from these albums called Songbird will be released on October 3rd, with the title track released in June. The first song was Waylon’s version of the Fleetwood Mac tune written and sung by Christine McVie. Now we get another unheard track from the upcoming album, and its another dandy.

The new song is called “The Cowboy (Small Texas Town),” and it’s taken from the same recording sessions of Waylon’s 1978 album I’ve Always Been Crazy. This is the same album that Waylon’s “Don’t You Think This Outlaw Bit’s Done Got Out of Hand” came from. That became a hit, along with the title track. Waylon produced the sessions himself with drummer Richie Albright.

“The Cowboy (Small Texas Town)” was written by fellow country legend Johnny Rodriguez, but it’s the perfect composition for Waylon, singing about humble beginnings in small town Texas (In Waylon’s case, Littlefield), along with referencing the “hippies and cowboys” scene that Waymore stumbled upon in Austin, TX after Willie Nelson convinced him to head there from Nashville.

The song also takes a stab at white collar criminals—something Waylon interfaced with regularly in the music business.

That white collar crowd may be stealing, anything that the law will allow
With a pen for a gun they can’t have no fun, ’cause they don’t fit in our crazy crowd

You can tell that the end of the song gets cut off somewhat abruptly, and is perhaps the reasons it ended up on the cutting house floor. But loose ends and all, Waylon fans won’t be looking this gift horse in the mouth.

“The Cowboy (Small Texas Town)” was released Thursday evening/Friday morning like many new tracks are. But on Friday evening, a video emerged for the song that answers the question many Waylon fans from his hometown of Littlefield and beyond have been asking: Who is behind the mysterious billboards that have appeared throughout the town of 6,000 in the Texas panhandle?

It was pretty obvious the answer was probably Shooter Jennings as part of the rollout of the new Waylon albums. But the video spills the beans as it’s made up of footage of crews installing the new Billboards, including one that reads, “I’m a cowboy who came here from Texas just to play you my music that’s all,” which is one of the lines from the new song “The Cowboy.”

A second Billboard also reads, “My long, shaggy hair and the clothes that I wear don’t fit your big fancy ball,” also taken from the song. The video also features “Waymore’s,” which is a liquor store in Littlefield operated by Waylon’s young brother James Jennings and his wife.

The upcoming album Songbird is currently available for presave/preorder.