THREE Albums of Unheard Waylon Jennings Songs on the Way
A year ago on Father’s Day (June 16th, 2024), Shooter Jennings took to social media to tell us that he’d gained possession of a bunch of unheard and unreleased recordings from his father, and would be preparing them for release.
…on Father’s Day, on the day after his birthday (and Nate Haessly’s birthday as well), I want to take a moment to make a very special announcement:
I’m in possession of a treasure trove of previously unheard full band Waylon Jennings multi-track recordings from the 70’s and early 80’s and I have begun preparing the material to be mixed right here at Snake Mountain on this beautiful 1976 Demedio Custom API console. These are not demos. These are not unfinished, but, they will take some time to explore, prepare and mix … but you’ve got something to look forward to:
There will be new, classic Waylon Jennings music in 2025 … Stay tuned …
FYI: Snake Mountain is Shooter’s nickname for Sunset Sound Studio 3 in Los Angeles where he’s based his production career, and recorded many recent projects.
But after a year had passed, we hadn’t heard anything, and some were starting to wonder if it was yet another wild goose chase of a supposed treasure trove of unreleased recordings from a country legend we’d never get to hear. After all, there’s reportedly 300 to 400 unreleased Merle Haggard songs out there still waiting to be released.
But now on Father’s Day 2025—which also happens to coincide with Waylon’s birthday this year (June 15th)—we’re finally getting to hear some of what Shooter Jennings has been working on, with a lot more in store. A version of Waylon Jennings singing the song “Songbird,” written by Christine McVie, and appearing on the iconic 1977 Fleetwood Mac album Rumors comes as Shooter confirms that three albums of unheard Waylon Jennings songs are on the way.
There’s also a video accompanying the song that includes footage from 1981 of Waylon’s 44th birthday party in Nashville. It also includes studio footage to Shooter welcoming four of the living members of Waylon’s backing band The Waylors to help put some finishing touches on some of the tracks, namely Jerry Bridges, Carter Robertson, Barny Robertson and Gordon Payne. Elizabeth Cook and Ashley Monroe also sing harmonies on “Songbird,” but no additional instrumentation from the original recording was added.
Someone leaked an early version the video a couple of days early, but the official video can be seen below.
But this is just the start. “We have 3 albums of material coming, and the first drops in October,” Shooter confirms to Saving Country Music. October 3rd will be the release for the first installment called Songbird. It will be released by Son of Jessi/Thirty Tigers.
Shooter had said on Instagram previously,
“When I was young, in the house that I grew up in, there was a room that was always locked. The ‘storage room’ is what my parents call it. I have vivid memories of dozens of grey boxes in cubby holes with notes jotted in marker on the outside. I knew what was in those boxes was my dad’s work.
What I expected to find was a catalog of all of my dad’s albums and recordings. I knew there were a few songs that were never released, for whatever reasons, so I had my fingers crossed that I would maybe find something special and rare along the way that I could share with you.
What I found was massive historical documentation of a man and a band with an incredible friendship, worth ethic and deep passion for playing and recording music. What I found was way beyond my wildest fantasies.”
Happy birthday Waylon, and Happy Father’s Day.
Songbird is available for presave/preorder.
June 15, 2025 @ 6:23 am
Now this is good news.
June 15, 2025 @ 6:40 am
Happy to see that there will be CD versions. Shooter seems a bit reticent with the format, preferring to keep releases like New Stuff (unheard Waylon demos) and Fenixon (Shooter’s ‘90s metal album that Waylon contributed heavily to) as vinyl only, which is annoying.
I’m kind of surprised that Robby Turner wasn’t asked to help with this. Makes me wonder what his relationship with Shooter is like, given that Shooter didn’t seem to be involved with Goin’ Down Rockin’.
Happy Birthday, Waylon.
June 15, 2025 @ 10:09 am
On Robbie Turner, while I have no idea about his relationship with Shooter, here’s what I know. I’ve seen Robbie recently, he plays bass in a local band in Nashville. Late Sunday nights you can find him at Music City Bar. He was in a bad car wreck a couple years ago and he walks with great difficulty and agony. He’s on a walker. Can’t imagine how difficult it would be to get him through an airport and on a plane to LA. Literally watching him struggle to get up on the stage hurt my heart so to speak. But the man soldiers onward playing his gigs. He’s got music in his soul and he ain’t totally giving up. I’ve talked to him a bit and he loves talking about his years with Waylon, he replaced Ralph Mooney and was with Waylon to the end.
June 15, 2025 @ 12:23 pm
That’s completely valid. But Shooter didn’t seem to be involved with Goin’ Down Rockin’, as I said, which presumably be the other way around with Shooter coming to Robby (which didn’t happen). Given how close Robby was with Waylon and the fact that we’ve had several of these posthumous releases, it just seems a bit odd for him to be excluded on this new material, and for Shooter to sit out the completion of the 2012 album. Robby did play on the Waylon Forever album in 2008 with Shooter’s band, the first of the “final” recordings (which appear to just be the vocal tracks Waylon recorded for Fenixon that remove the metal elements and add country instrumentation). Maybe something happened there? Or maybe they had disagreements about how to finish out these projects?
I could be just manufacturing drama where there is none, I just feel like the fact that they haven’t worked together on any of this to be strange, particularly when the press releases make a big deal about reassembling members of the original band.
But whatever the case may be, I’m excited for more new (old) Waylon!
June 15, 2025 @ 7:01 am
Marking the release date on the calendar now!
June 15, 2025 @ 12:45 pm
Additional info: according to a long comment on Trigger’s article for The Lost Nashville Sessions by JD Myers, initially there were going to be two versions released. One would have been the original masters as-is and the other would have been the sweetened recordings. Ultimately only the latter came out. Again, could be nothing, but it seems like they might have different ideas about how to handle these projects.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/unreleased-waylon-jennings-the-lost-nashville-sessions-coming/
June 15, 2025 @ 7:40 am
As a Waylon fan I’m looking forward to hearing these unreleased recordings.
But although there may be a few interesting tracks, I believe that the best recordings generally get released while the rest stay in the vault. Clearly they were not deemed good enough or strong enough to be released back in the day. Seldom have I found truly outstanding unreleased tracks in the extensive Bear Family box sets although occasionally there’s a rare gem or two.
Also the period that these recordings cover (70’s to early 80’s) Waylon’s drug addiction was at it’s worst. So there’s that.
June 15, 2025 @ 7:40 am
Wow! Wow! Wow! As a long time Waylon fan, this is definitely music to my ears (and heart!).
Not only available on CD but there will be a limited release of 1000 vinyl LPs in candy corn color. Pretty dang cool.
June 15, 2025 @ 7:57 am
Boy, I can’t wait for these to come out. I always said Waylon played my kind of music! To me, he was the best!
June 16, 2025 @ 8:22 am
They’re also doing pre-orders of the album on Shooter’s website for a limited run of 500 on “joker purple” vinyl.
June 15, 2025 @ 8:12 am
Happy Father’s Day, to all the Dads out there!
June 15, 2025 @ 8:44 am
This is my kind of Father’s Day.
June 15, 2025 @ 8:54 am
SO good to hear that man’s voice again!
June 15, 2025 @ 9:33 am
Being honest I didn’t know what to expect when I pushed play on “Songbird.” Such an iconic song by one of the most beautiful and pure voices in rock ever. In 2014 I was at the second show following Christine’s return to The Mac after a decade plus away. During this song Stevie was balling. Pretty sure Mick was too. It was one of those concert moments you always remember. Waylon’s version is quite beautiful. Wow.
June 15, 2025 @ 10:17 am
Considering Waylon’s coked-out mind and generally wasted lifestyle at the time, I cannot say I have any great expectations for these releases.
Add modern-day mixing/remixing, and this whole project seems like an shameless attempt at money-milking.
June 15, 2025 @ 11:50 am
Wow. Unnecessary bullshit remark noted.
June 16, 2025 @ 5:55 am
Vault material was generally shelved for a reason.
June 15, 2025 @ 4:35 pm
You couldn’t be more wrong
June 17, 2025 @ 11:36 am
I’m going to remember this comment in future so you can eat these words…. Songbird is a wonderful cover and if the rest of the Album is as good as Songbird it will something special for the fans… and absolutely no need to bring up Waylon’s drug abuse even fan knows and most don’t care. He’s a Legend
June 15, 2025 @ 10:53 am
Wat een warmte ,zijn stem en de muziek samen met Willie Nelson en vrienden
June 15, 2025 @ 11:33 am
I’m enjoying this new track! He could always knock the hell out of a Fleetwood Mac song – “Gold Dust Woman,” “Rhiannon,” and this further proves the point!
Granted the vault stuff maybe isn’t always the best, it can’t be any worse than much of the album filler back then. And for those bringing up his druggie years – either they really haven’t listened to his stuff or like so many online feel being contrary is a personality, because those years he was blowing his money and health he was cranking out some of the very best vocals he ever put down on tape.
June 15, 2025 @ 9:27 pm
As for your last point; by 1978 his voice was very much done. No range left, he spoke more than he sang.
I like ol’ Waymore and wish he would’ve been around a bit longer, but I refuse to blindly ignore the fact that most of my musical “heroes” lost their voice with age. George Jones, Jimmy Buffett, Jerry Lee Lewis, Merle Haggard, Willie and Waylon to name a few; they competed against their own legacy, and it was obvious that age and lifestyle took its toll.
That said; I rather listen to a dry-voiced Buffett half-shouting the words than listening to the annoying, soulless singing of Jelly Roll and numerous others.
June 16, 2025 @ 8:20 am
You’re crazy. In 1978 Waylon was putting out some of his best music. There was no “dry voice”
Period on waylon. It’s amazing how entitled you fans are to these periods of artists. To me this sounds like the exact period we want to hear!
June 16, 2025 @ 11:51 am
It is not entitlement to point out Waylon abused his voice with drugs and riotous living.
Cultists, like yourself, are annoying.
June 16, 2025 @ 10:17 pm
That’s absolutely not true. His voice had some rough times in 1982 and 1983, but outside of that brief period, Waylon’s voice stayed really strong until essentially the end of his life.
Case in point: who did all the high harmonies when The Highwaymen played live? Waylon.
The timbre of Waylon’s voice changed quite noticeably in 1994, but his range stayed almost completely intact. In fact, he was hitting the high notes in MacArthur Park as late as 1997, which was when he last performed it. He could also still go really low, as evidenced by the almost vocal fry “settle down” at the start of Closing In On The Fire on Never Say Die: Live.
June 17, 2025 @ 1:00 am
Waylon was making good albums right up until the mid 1990s with “Right for the Time” and “Clsoing In on the Fire.” His voice was fine and in any event, Waylon was a communicator.
June 17, 2025 @ 3:55 am
Right For The Time, IMO, is one of his best albums. Waylon started writing the majority of the songs on his albums later in his career.
Right For The Time flew under the radar, and it’s a shame.
June 17, 2025 @ 7:51 am
Yeah, totally agree, Waylon made strong albums all through the eighties. I’ve got quite a few. Will The Wolf Survive is one I personally love. Vocally, it’s Waylon as good as ever. Of course the 70s albums are absolute prime Waylon, Ol Waylon, Dreaming My Dreams, Music Man, Willie and Waylon and the like.
This release is intriguing. I’m all aboard.
June 15, 2025 @ 12:01 pm
If any the other of the songs are half as good as this one, it will be fantastic!
Robby Turner is a great guy and incredibly talented, I hope he is doing well, check out the Nashville Cats tribute to him at the Country Music Hall of Fame, what a man.
I wish Shooter would see that ‘White Mansions’ by Waylon got re-released, somehow I lost my original LP and cant find it. Such a great record of the Civil War era, on par with Poco’s Blue and Gray album that is phenomenal!
June 16, 2025 @ 1:37 am
“White Mansions” is a Paul Kennerly album, with guest vocals by Waylon and several others.
As far as I know, it’s readily available.
June 16, 2025 @ 11:51 am
Not on Spotify last time I checked.
June 17, 2025 @ 3:10 pm
Ah, so the only options will be the hard stuff or uploads on Youtube.
But okay, to get some digital copies, I guess they’re gonna make us outlaws again, to quote the great James Talley.
June 16, 2025 @ 1:16 pm
Not on Spotify or Apple Music. But I was able to find a copy on CD on eBay, and it was paired with The Legend of Jesse James, another Paul Kennerly compilation featuring Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm and others.
I was also lucky enough to find a near mint condition copy of White Mansions on vinyl several years ago. One of my most prized vinyl.
June 16, 2025 @ 8:39 am
That album is pretty available on Ebay on Vinyl.
June 15, 2025 @ 2:19 pm
Oh,dang.Always up for more Waylon Jennings.
June 15, 2025 @ 3:25 pm
I’ve already preordered the vinyl album. Thank you Shooter for releasing them on vinyl. I have a huge Waylon vinyl album collection (103 total albums) and was hoping this would be vinyl as well.
June 15, 2025 @ 3:54 pm
Maybe the model here is Sony-Legacy’s release of a “new” old Johnny Cash Album “Out Among the Stars” in 2014, some eleven years after Cash’s death, but that had actually been recorded mostly in 1984. It turned out to be a good album, with the strong title song (though versions by Haggard and Waylon were released, around the time that Cash’s version was recorded but not released), a rocking duet by Cash and Waylon on Hank Snow’s “Movin’ On,” a nice Johnny and June duet on “Baby, Ride Easy,” and also, a comedic song that turns out to be possibly the only duet between Johnny and Minnie Pearl!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95mTRq8-S2Y
Cash’s “Out Among the Stars” actually opened at #1 on the Billboard Country album chart and #2 on the all-genre chart. (I think Legacy picked a very advantageous week to release it, but hey, nobody blocked other labels from releasing big albums that week).
Can’t say I see much chance of this “new” old Waylon album making that kind of a debut, but it’s worth a shot.
I didn’t see Jessi Colter mentioned in connection with this release–other than Shooter using a “Son of Jessi” moniker in the label name–but perhaps she’s in her 80s and perhaps she retired from promoting the Waylon legacy.
June 15, 2025 @ 3:56 pm
A nice cover it was. Very excited to hear the new stuff though like a lot said, you usually cant expect much from this stuff. But there is always the chance of a few gems in there. Regardless will probably still be better than a lot of todays stuff. Comin out right around my birthday so a nice gift for me.
June 15, 2025 @ 10:57 pm
I’m looking forward to this. Even third tier albums by Waylon are worth listening to, and his best LPs are historically great–I’ve heard very, very few country albums I like as much as Dreaming my Dreams and not a single one that I like more than that gorgeous and moody classic.
June 15, 2025 @ 11:25 pm
…this may not be the best version of “songbird” i’ve ever heard, but as soon as you hear waylon’s voice coming up that special magic of his music is right there. really something to look forward to this project of shooters. actually, one of the most creative producers in country music in the last few years. there’s a guy, who has found his real talent and passion.
June 16, 2025 @ 5:57 am
This is cool. Looking forward to some new Waylon.
June 16, 2025 @ 10:05 am
This is awesome.
You had me at “Three albums of unheard Waylon Jennings songs,”
June 16, 2025 @ 12:54 pm
So only the vocals from the original sessions are being used? I have mixed feelings about this. I did enjoy the cover of “Songbird,” but I wonder how long before we start getting ‘new’ music from Hank Williams Sr., Elvis Presley, etc., etc. I mean, the Randy Travis Ai stuff has people believing Travis is singing again. The last ‘new’ Beatles song was crafted using Ai. It’s a slippery slope. How much of the Waylon vocals will have been corrected in the studio?
June 16, 2025 @ 10:21 pm
The music is from the original sessions, also. In some cases overdubs have been made to complete incomplete parts, but the original musicians from the sessions are (generally) doing said overdubs, it seems. That’s about as authentic as something like this can get.
Shooter seems really determined to give these releases the integrity they deserve.
June 18, 2025 @ 1:27 pm
“…but no additional instrumentation from the original recording was added.”
Yep, real authentic.
June 18, 2025 @ 10:39 pm
I believe that was supposed to mean that only the original instruments from the original recordings have been used. For instance, they haven’t added banjo to a song that didn’t originally have it, etc.
Songbird features NO augmentation instrumentally, just the female backing vocals which, IMO, sound great.
Waylon’s vocals won’t be “corrected” at all.
If you’re doubting that the original instrumentation is intact and can’t hear Ralph Mooney’s steel playing and Richie Albright’s unique late ’70s snare drum sound (and production), then I really think you’re just hearing what you want to hear…
June 16, 2025 @ 2:05 pm
Waylon is my all time favorite. Looking forward to this. I will buy a CD copy of each one!
June 16, 2025 @ 2:52 pm
This song sounds great! Anyone know if Ralph Mooney plays steel on Songbird, and if we will also get to hear any Ralph Mooney steel playing on this album? The other Waylon album released with the music added on (Going down rockin’) was a disappointment as the music did not sound as a Waylon album, they should have just released an acoustic demo version of it without the added band. But, this sounds great. Looks like Shooter knows what he’s doing.
June 16, 2025 @ 10:22 pm
They did release an acoustic demo version of the “Goin’ Down Rockin'” album. It was digital only, but it was released, and it was pretty cool.
June 17, 2025 @ 5:14 am
I’m pretty sure its Mooney
June 16, 2025 @ 4:15 pm
When we moved to Lubbock Texas in the 70’s I was not a country music lover….after western dance lessons at The Texas Cow Palace I was introduced to Waylon music in that wonderful huge dance floor! I am 82 now and still love my Waylon music. Our neighbor from the KLLL radio station had an afternoon show, Waylon would call in and they would talk and play his music! His last name was ? Coleman….The last song every Saturday night at The Cow Palace was Waylon and my favorire was “Rainy Day Woman”. I just played “Songbird” on my cell phone and I had tears of nostalgia. Waylon and Ray Charles are my all time favorite artists! I am now going to get cd’s out and enjoy some Waylon CD’s and see if we can still do The Texas Two Step!!!!!
June 16, 2025 @ 10:23 pm
I think the last name you’re thinking of might be Corbin. 🙂
June 17, 2025 @ 4:18 am
Been waiting for a Waylon story to ask this question- can someone please explain to me what “As The ‘Billy World Turns” song is about??
Love this song. Not sure if it’s an old school country diss track, or if ol Waylon is just taking the piss out of his buddies.
Thanks in advance!!
June 17, 2025 @ 8:40 am
Huge Waylon fan and I must say. This sounds like vintage Waymore! The instrumentation has that steady back beat and his soulful vocals. It kinda sounds late 70s era Waylon to me. This song would have fit in perfectly with the Ol Waylon or Music Man albums. What a treat this is!
June 17, 2025 @ 10:39 am
Waylon is my favorite artist in any genre of all time. I saw the story earlier this year of these recordings existing, and I Iet this story sink in for a couple of days after it was posted here on Sunday. I just listened to the Songbird video and was immediately transported back to my childhood, riding around in my dad’s Custom Deluxe pickup listening to old Waylon cassettes. Needless to say, I can not wait for these recordings to be released.
June 20, 2025 @ 2:57 pm
Been listening to the song constantly all week…feels extremely out of place bringing up Easton Corbin in this conversation, but his line “steel ride so strong it sends chills up your back” is truly the best way to describe what Ralph Mooney brings to a track. This project being more Mooney recordings is almost as big of a deal as it being more Waylon recordings.
June 20, 2025 @ 4:08 pm
Terrific comment! Mooney was the secret weapon of Waylon. And more Mooney ain’t a bad thing.