Waylon Live

Amazon.com

First released as a vinyl LP in 1976, this was always the definitive live Outlaw country set. But it was originally meant to be a double album, and the nine songs that were edited out back then now appear here (with one from the initial album now deleted). They range from “Lonesome, On’ry and Mean” (which has a shell as hard as a desert reptile) to “Never Been to Spain” (well, he always did show erratic taste in pop songs). They join such LP tracks as the slow-death “Last Letter” and the rip-snorting “I’m a Ramblin’ Man.” The 1970s Waylors created a crackling, propulsive sound featuring loping rock-influenced beats, guitars that alternated between meditation and back-alley snarl, and Ralph Mooney’s primer on how to play pedal steel. More than ever, this is the definitive live Outlaw set. –John Morthland