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Updated 3-19-06

Listen to All of the New Highwaymen Family Albums for Free on CMT.com

Kris Kristofferson's new album: This Old Road http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/kristofferson_kris/1240126/album.jhtml
Jessi Colter's new album: Out of the Ashes http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/colter_jessi/1238474/album.jhtml
Roseanne Cash's new album: Black Cadillac http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/cash_rosanne/1195946/album.jhtml
Willie Nelson's new album: You Don't Know Me - Songs of Cindy Walker http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/nelson_willie/1239735/album.jhtml
Shooter Jennings' new album: Electric Rodeo http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/jennings__shooter/1263755/album.jhtml

Watch all of the Highwaymen videos on CMT.com http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/highwaymen_country_/artist.jhtml

By MICHAEL D. CLARK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The first day of the South by Southwest music conference got off to a strong start Wednesday night with a brief barroom set by Kris Kristofferson and Jessi Colter, a return to modern Brit-pop nirvana with Belle & Sebastian, carefully layered (and heavily amplified) guitar rock by Scottish rockers Mogwai and an unexpectedly captivating stomp by local Austin rock band the Black Angels.

Kristofferson's appearance at the Austin Music Awards was actually a spillover from his appearance at the SXSW movie festival earlier in the week. His nasally, dry baritone perfectly harmonized with Colter's country-girl sweetness. On Colter's Please Carry Me Home (from her new album Out of the Ashes), Kristofferson filled in for Colter's son Shooter Jennings, who sang on the album. Appropriately, the two ended with a cover of a Kristofferson favorite, Help Me Make It Through the Night.

* You can watch video footage for free of all of the Highwaymen at
the following link:

www.youtube.com

* The New York Broadway premiere of Ring of Fire began preview
performances on Wednesday, February 8, 2006 and will open officially on Sunday, March 12, 2006 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. From the heart of the songs of Johnny Cash comes a show about love and faith, struggle and success, rowdiness and redemption. A company of fourteen multi-talented performers takes you into the world Johnny Cash created in his songs.
Ring of Fire features 38 of the music legend's songs such as "Country Boy," "A Thing Called Love," "Five Feet High and Rising," "Daddy Sang Bass," "Ring of Fire," "I Walk the Line," "I've Been Everywhere," "The Man in Black," and his final hit, "Hurt."

Ticket Information:

Tickets are available for purchase online at Telecharge.com or by phone at (212)239-6200; outside metro New York (800)432-7250 or at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre box office (243 West 47th Street).

Additional ticket information can be found at www.ringoffirethemusical.com.
Thu. February 16.2006 6:50 PM EST

Three new, very gripping CDs in coming weeks from the Waylon Jennings-Jessi Colter family promise some very satisfying listening. The late Waylon Jennings' Live From Austin TX CD and DVD are set for release Feb. 21, his wife Jessi Colter's Out of the Ashes is due Feb. 28 and their son Shooter Jennings' second release Electric Rodeo is due April 4.

This is a family that is at once as enigmatic as any in music and yet at the same time as musically fertile and diverse as any in country music history. Waylon's stature has grown since his untimely death in 2002, and there are few country artists -- alive or dead -- who measure up to him. Jessi has not cut a solo album in 22 years, and I think this one will surprise listeners a great deal. Shooter made a very strong debut CD last year with Put the "O" Back in Country and has clearly matured with Electric Rodeo.

Waylon's latest is a live show recorded on Austin City Limits and is another in a series of ACL's impressive releases (other current CDs and simultaneous DVDs include works from Merle Haggard and Tony Joe White).
This 17-song set was recorded in Austin in 1989, when Jennings had gotten totally clean from his drug problem and was physically and vocally strong. At his best, no one was more musically authoritative onstage than Waylon at his peak, and he is totally in charge here.
Clear-voiced and obviously enjoying the evening with his stellar steel guitar player Ralph Mooney pushing him along, Jennings laid down a set for the ages. Nobody rocks out as hard as Waylon does here on such songs as "I Ain't Living Long Like This" or sings as tender a ballad as he does with "Amanda."

I wish this were also available on vinyl. Nothing sounds better to me these days as far as country sound goes than Waylon's early and mid-1970s albums on vinyl. Say what you will about the clarity of digital recording and CD sound, nothing beats the urgency and range and musical warmth of analog sound on vinyl records.

Jennings duets on two tracks with his wife Jessi Colter -- on Elvis'
"Suspicious Minds" and the old Hank Thompson country classic, "The Wild Side of Life," which evolves into Jessi's version "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," the woman's answer song which put Kitty Wells on the musical map.

Colter delves into the blues and soul and gospel sides of country on her new Out of the Ashes very dramatically. She is stepping into her own spotlight, and rightfully so. This is good stuff. The album opens with the moody gospel classic "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" and works through many original Colter songs as well as a surprising take on Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35."

She completes a very effective song from an old tape by husband Waylon with swamp-rock master Tony Joe White on the latter's composition "Out of the Rain." New songs, such as "So Many Things," "Never Got Over You"
and "The Canyon," are very affecting. In "The Canyon" she sings, "Don't lay your bridle on my shoulder/Don't bring your bit to my mouth/Don't lay your blanket on my body/Just take your saddle and move out." She finishes the CD in a duet with son Shooter on the emotional "Please Carry Me Home."

Shooter Jennings' upcoming Electric Rodeo continues and elaborates upon the themes that carried his debut album. Not to give away the thunder of Electric Rodeo, but it's a more adventurous and at once introspective venture.

Some musical highlights include "Little White Lines," a cocaine caution tale, and "Aviators," a steel-guitar drenched tongue-in-cheek weeper.

And Shooter is starting to sound a little more like his daddy in "Some Rowdy Woman" in both lyrics and vocals. And particularly chilling is "Living Proof," with the lyrics, "You ain't as good as your daddy, and you never will be."

This is a family that has carried the tradition of Texas country, West Texas rock 'n' roll, Western swing and now two generations of Outlaw country music and still makes it all matter.

You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker may be better than anything Willie has cut since Stardust, almost 30 years ago. Age has weathered his voice, but it's also given it a graceful gravitas and a worn patina that suit these sepia-toned song chestnuts very well. A good song doesn't know its age and exists in a timeless place where it can live forever. A Cindy Walker original such as "You Don't Know Me" on this album has been a hit for Eddy Arnold (1956), Ray Charles (1962) and Mickey Gilley (1981) and will undoubtedly be a hit again for artists we don't even know about yet. All 13 songs, such as "Bubbles in My Beer"
and "Not That I Care" and "Dusty Skies" are highlights.

Walker, who gave one of the more moving and personal acceptance speeches I have ever heard when she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997, has long been a unique songwriter in a pantheon of unique songwriters. She lives in Mexia, in East Texas, where she has written hits for the past five decades, ranging from "Bubbles in My Beer" for Bob Wills to "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)" for Roy Orbison. She moved to Hollywood in the early 1940s and successfully pitched songs to pop crooner Bing Crosby and got a Decca Records contract but ultimately decided to return to East Texas to write songs and to live a life as the solitary songwriter. Her catalog now numbers more than 500 songs.

The other part of this equation that is just as fascinating is the producer of You Don't Know Me -- Fred Foster. He is perhaps the most underpraised of Nashville music pioneers. His Monument Records label and Combine Music publishing firm launched careers for artists ranging from Orbison to Kris Kristofferson to Dolly Parton. He signed Parton in 1964 when no one else was interested in her. At one time or another, he also signed Nelson, Ray Stevens, Tony Joe White, Larry Gatlin and the pre-Outlaws outlaw, singer-songwriter Chris Gantry. He encouraged songwriter Kristofferson to try his hand at recording his own songs, and Foster co-wrote "Me and Bobby McGee" with him. At one time in the 1960s, he also had a soul label, Soul Stage 7, with artists ranging from Ivory Joe Hunter to the O'Jays to Arthur Alexander to Joe Simon. The Rolling Stones covered Alexander's "You Better Move On." In his recording sessions, he also encouraged emerging session players such as Charlie McCoy and Jerry Kennedy, who went on to become major figures in Nashville. At Monument, Foster produced all of Orbison's monster hits, often punctuating Orbison's soaring vocals with symphonic orchestration and choral backup singers.

The production on this Willie Nelson recording recalls Foster's clean production on all of the great Orbison sides: a very spare but crisp and warm sound that grabs you and holds on. This production is a potent reminder of the wealth of talent in Nashville. The Monument Records story remains one of the great unwritten books in Nashville. And the songs themselves are a strong lesson that there have been giants in country music songwriting. I wish Cindy Walker would write the story of her life. And Willie -- he can write anything he wants to, and I'll gladly read it.
*

"I made my living as a theater actor before I got my record deal," White recently told CMT Insider, "so it is in a way coming home on a bigger scale."

White has rehearsed her role since Ring of Fire's first workshop in December 2004. The production opened Sunday (March 12) at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.

"It was a little different than just walking into an existing role and doing my stint and leaving," she said. "We actually got to create this piece and sit in a room together and make up parts and say, 'Oh, I'll sing the harmony part and you take the lead.' The musicians were all making up what they were going to play. It's been a very organic process of actually creating a piece of American theater."

Yet, White still has a hard time explaining the concept of the show, which features 38 of Cash's songs -- although Cash is not a character in the script. The production also stars Jeb Brown, Jason Edwards, Tony-winner Jarrod Emich, Beth Malone and Cass Morgan.

"You just have to come to New York and see it," she said. "It's all music, it's all family, it's all community, it's all heart, and it's all Johnny at his best. He had no limitations. He had no boundaries."

In the second act, White performs "All Over Again," a Cash song she had never heard before production started. The director Richard Maltby asked her to rearrange it to make it her own. Now, she says, "I have completely fallen in love with that song."

White notched a handful of Top 10 country hits in the mid-1990s, including "Now I Know" and "That's My Baby." After parting ways with RCA, she scored a 1997 hit duet with Travis Tritt ("Helping Me Get Over You"), then released one album on Lyric Street Records a year later. In 2002, she independently released Green-Eyed Soul. That same year, she formed a co-op label with her husband Chuck Cannon to release albums of songwriters performing their own hits.

In the last few months of 2005, she teamed with Toby Keith in the studio she shares with Cannon, one of Keith's frequent collaborators. White is among only a handful of female producers in Nashville, and she has a clever theory about why Keith chose her.

"He loves my production, but I think he's just trying to get on Oprah,"
she joked. "He's like, 'Hey, I got a chick producer! Come on, book me!'"

Keith asked White to produce some demos in the fall of 2005, so she scheduled a few days in her studio and hired a group of musicians that Keith didn't know.

"We thought we'd cut maybe two or three songs in those two days," White recalled. "Well, we cut three songs the first day, and we cut three songs the next day. It was like cutting butter. It was so easy. Toby enjoyed himself. He had a good time making music again. Sometimes it's not easy to enjoy yourself so much when you get to the level of success that he has."

Pleased with the results, Keith and White forged ahead, completing the album by the end of the year.

"I've never made a record so fast in my life," White said. "I didn't know it was humanly possible, but like I said, it was so easy. The music was easy to make. The spirit was there and the songs were there. It was just a blast."
View photos from the production and premiere <http://www.cmt.com/artists/news/1526009/03132006/cash_johnny.jhtml> .
NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Willie Scores Again With a Stellar New CD Songs of Cindy Walker Also Recalls Nashville History Chet Flippo

(NASHVILLE SKYLINE is a column by CMT/CMT.com Editorial Director Chet
Flippo.)

Thehighwaymen.net fan team is proud to introduce it's newest tribute website, www.jessicolter.com. Just in time for her new album, Out of the Ashes, www.jessicolter.com breaks ground as the internets only tribute website to the First Lady of Outlaw Music. Please be sure to check it out and come back often as there will be lots of news updates and tons of photos coming online in the near future. Any suggestions, feedback, or materials contributions to the site itself are welcomed and encouraged.

Shaver Album to Feature John Carter Cash & Kristofferson

Billy Joe Shaver started recording his new record this weekend at the Cash cabin recording studio. The untitled Gospel project is produced by John Carter Cash and will feature several guest artists including Kris Kristofferson. The recording should conclude in late April for a tentative October release.

KIM CURTIS
Associated Press

FOLSOM, Calif. - Joaquin Phoenix, whose portrayal of Johnny Cash in
"Walk the Line" has made him an early Oscar front-runner, returned
Tuesday to the scene of one of the musician's most famous concerts -
Folsom State Prison.

Cash's Jan. 13, 1968, performance in a prison yard cemented his image
as working-class hero and became a popular live album.

About 54 inmates watched the movie in the Sacramento suburb as the
actor and his entourage, including musician Shooter Jennings, who
played his father, Waylon Jennings, in the movie, and a host of prison
officials toured the facility.

Dressed head to toe in Cash's trademark black, Phoenix performed
several acoustic songs with Jennings at the prison's Greystone Chapel,
including Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." Jennings played his own song,
"I'm a Long Way From Home."

Phoenix apologized for his "rusty" performance, saying he had not
played since the completion of the movie.

"I don't know if you've noticed but I've messed up like 40 times,"
Phoenix said. "I'm all over the place."

One inmate asked Phoenix if he learned to play guitar for the movie.

"John wasn't (Jimi) Hendrix," Phoenix replied. "It was real simple ...
we rehearsed a lot."

Phoenix said his co-star in the film, Reese Witherspoon, who played
Cash's wife, June Carter Cash, wanted to be there for the event.

"I know you guys would probably rather see Reese," he said.

Warden Mark Shepherd presented Phoenix with a prison-made license
plate bearing the actor's name, and gave another to Jennings bearing
the movie's title.

The warden asked if Phoenix and 20th Century Fox, the studio which
produced the movie, would be willing to make a donation to help fix
the aging chapel.

"It would be my pleasure," Phoenix said.

The event was organized by Prison Fellowship, a group that runs Bible
studies and other educational programs in prisons.

Fellowship spokesman Joe Avila said the movie's message would be good
for inmates because Cash's "whole life was a message of redemption."

"The movie is about how he screwed it up really bad, and he turned to
Jesus Christ to help him change," Avila said.

Phoenix has been considered a likely Academy Awards nominee for best
actor for his role as Cash, who died in 2003 soon after the death of
his wife, June Carter Cash.

Known for brooding roles, Phoenix brilliantly captures the dark
corners of Cash, who was haunted by the death of his brother when they
were boys and struggled with a long addiction to pills. Yet Phoenix
also showed a sunnier side, embodying Cash's joyous nature in both his
music and his pursuit of Carter.

An Oscar win by Phoenix would make it the second-straight year the
best-actor honor went to a performer playing a beloved, recently
deceased American singer. The 2004 Oscar went to Jamie Foxx for his
portrayal of Ray Charles in "Ray."

Unlike Foxx, who lip-synched to Charles' music, Phoenix handled his
own singing in "Walk the Line," ably re-creating the resonant bass
voice of Cash. Phoenix also intensively studied guitar, learning to
emulate Cash's freight-train rhythms.

---

Associated Press Movie Writer David Germain contributed to this report.

http://www.helpwithhepc.com/HepC_30.mov

Waylon also used to do PSAs for Hep C.

"I've been circling," Jessi Colter says. "The recording had to happen at the right time
and the right place."

Colter's circling is over: The queen of '70s outlaw country, who scored hits in her own right and with her late husband Waylon Jennings, returns to form Feb. 21 with the release of "Out of the Ashes," her first major solo release in 20 years.

Colter -- who scored a No. 1 country hit in 1975 with "I'm Not Lisa" and became one of the faces of Music City rebellion with her inclusion on the cornerstone 1976 compilation "Wanted! The Outlaws" -- withdrew from country during the past two decades to focus on writing and performing children's music.

Things changed in February 2002, when Jennings died after a long bout with diabetes.

"As time passed, after Waylon's death, I really needed to process," she says. She took inspiration from the music of Ben Harper, and from the country-rock fusion of her son Shooter Jennings, who released his debut album "Put the 'O' Back in Country" last year.

"I so realized the importance of music," she says. "Not that I could leave music -- I'm a desperate writer ... I needed expression. I began to live life one step at a time. I realized I had to keep living."

She ran some of her new music past a friend, A-list producer Don Was. "He heard the first song," Colter recalls, "and said, 'Give me 10 of those, and we'll record."

With Was at the helm and noted producer-engineer Ray Kennedy behind the board, Colter cut "Out of the Ashes" with a top-flight band that included Waylon's longtime drummer Richie Albright, Ray Herndon on guitar and vocals, session guitarist supreme Reggie Young and Young's wife Jenny Lynn on cello.

The album runs the gamut from the sinuous funk of "You Can Pick 'Em" and a cover of Bob Dylan's raucous "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" to the traditional spiritual "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" ("That's something I sing a couple of times a week," Colter says) and "Please Carry Me Home," a duet with her son that first appeared on an
album inspired by Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ."

One long-in-gestation track is the Tony Joe White composition "Out of the Rain." Swamp fox White is featured on the performance; so is Waylon Jennings, who demoed the song years ago. "That was one of our masters," Colter says. "I'm not sure when it was recorded."

The act of making "Out of the Ashes" has plainly excited Colter: Words pour out of her in an endless flow, and the music has been pouring forth as well. She says she will make an album with musician-producer Lenny Kaye (who co-authored Waylon's 1996 autobiography) as well as a collection of musical interpretations of the Psalms.
She also wants to record with Shooter, who will preface the April release of his sophomore album with a single Feb. 13, the fourth anniversary of Waylon's death.

Colter, whose live appearances have largely been limited to low-profile performances with Shooter in recent years, plans to get on the road in 2006. "I'll do it for fun," she says. "Gotta be fun, or I won't do it anymore."

From American Roots Publishing:

Willie & Shooter will be on Kris Tribute Album

We will release The Pilgrim: A Celebration Of Kris Kristofferson in
June 2006 to celebrate Kris's 70th birthday. The album is being
produced by Randy Scruggs, and our own Tom Frouge is the executive
producer. Confirmed artists include Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson,
Rodney Crowell, Jill Sobule & Lloyd Cole, Calexico & Charanga
Cakewalk, Todd Snider, Shawn Camp, Shooter Jennings and Lila Downs. By
the time we finish, we'll have 14-15 tracks.

FromShooterJennings.com

Shooter hints in his newest journal entry that there will be a release of some sort of Waylon’s in 2006! 

From Rolling Stone

"WILLIE NELSON and RYAN ADAMS AND THE CARDINALS came together for a
recording session at New York's Loho Studios last week. Indie talent
Adams -- who was said to have been producing the as-yet-unspecified
project -- released "29," his third album of the year, on Tuesday. Adams
opened for country star Nelson's New York dates in November. Nelson
released a reggae album, "Countryman," in July and will hit the road
again beginning, January 20th in Nice, California." 

ORIGINAL LADY-OUTLAW JESSI COLTER READIES FIRST NEW SOLO ALBUM IN 20 YEARS, OUT OF THE ASHES

In Stores February 21st From Shout! Factory, The New Don Was-Produced CD Features Guest Vocals By Shooter Jennings, Tony Joe White And Waylon Jennings

Quote:
Jessi Colter is the real thing. Truth and beauty.
No music is closer to the music in my soul.

-- Kris Kristofferson


LOS ANGELES, CA Original country outlaw Jessi Colter breaks a 20-year silence as she prepares to release Out Of The Ashes, her first new solo album since 1984. Produced by longtime friend and Grammy® award winner Don Was, Out Of The Ashes marks a grand return to Colter’s roots, with twelve predominantly self-penned songs steeped in the blues and gospel of traditional country music. Recorded over a period of two years in Nashville, the album features guest vocals by Colter’s son Shooter Jennings, good friend Tony Joe White, and even a voice from the past, the legendary Waylon Jennings. Out Of The Ashes arrives in stores February 21st from Shout! Factory.

Colter was enticed into recording a new album by old friend Don Was. “I played Don one of my new songs and he said, ˜You write ten of those and we’ll make an album.”” Colter had actually recorded many demos at home, accompanying herself on the grand piano, many of which were incorporated into the tapestry of the new album. Legendary engineer and alt-country veteran Ray Kennedy (Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams) quickly signed on to the project. The resulting collection has already been given the ultimate compliment by Shooter, who remarked that it sounds “dirty and messy like an early Rolling Stones record.

Out Of The Ashes reaches nearly every corner of traditional American roots music, beginning with a haunting version of the classic hymn His Eye Is On The Sparrow, perhaps intended as an opening prayer to the commanding album. With the perfunctory blessing out of the way, the album then steps into the mid-tempo bluesy rhythm of You Can Pick ‘Em, co-written with songwriter and longtime Lyle Lovett band member Ray Herndon, who also co-wrote and provided vocals on the traditional-sounding duet Never Got Over You. Colter also shares a writing credit and vocals on Please Carry Me Home (originally recorded for Songs Inspired By The Passion Of The Christ), the powerful gospel hymn written with son Shooter Jennings, a successful country artist in his own right.

The most talked about cut on Out Of The Ashes will undoubtedly be the Tony Joe White scribed Out of the Rain.  Appearing mid-way through the album, the slow-moving duet predates the new material by several years and includes an initial vocal track completed by Waylon Jennings, a fitting tribute to Colter’s late love. The track also features what Colter terms “primitive” sounding vocals by the Greater Apostolic Christ Temple Choir. Out Of The Ashes also includes a rollicking blues version of the Dylan song Rainy Day Women #12 & 35. And, Colter’s voice sounds particularly sweet in the simple lullaby You Took Me By Surprise which, with the simple piano and fiddle accompaniment, is reminiscent of classic Patsy Cline.

Out Of The Ashes marks the eighth solo album release for Colter beginning with 1970’s aptly titled A Country Star Is Born and excluding two children’s releases in ‘95 and ‘00. Colter makes her home in Arizona nowadays, on a ranch with a view of the mountains. The peacefulness, she says, contributes to her incentive to write. Colter claims to have written two more albums worth of material, so rest assured there will be no more 20-year interruptions in this classic career.



 visit www.shoutfactory.com

Kristofferson Goes (New) West
Nov. 30, 2005
By Phyllis Stark
Los Angeles-based New West Records has signed country legend Kris
Kristofferson to its artist roster. His label debut, &ldquo;This Old
Road,&rdquo; is due March 7, 2006

. Produced by Don Was, it will be Kristofferson's first studio album in 11 years.
Kristofferson previously recorded for the Monument, A&M and Columbia labels and has written numerous hit songs for other artists.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

A Message from Ted Kamp-Bass Player from The Shooter Jennings Band          http://www.tedrussellkamp.com

"Shooter thinks it is wonderful that fans and friends like you, are keeping the spirit of Waylon and The Highwaymen alive with your website. He is very pleased and impressed that the music means so much to you."

We will be featuring more quotes from a recent interview with our friend, Ted in the near future. Ted tells us some great stories about Shooter, Jessi, and some memories of Waylon. In the meantime, please check out Ted's website.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
 

05/02/05

Brian Maughan, Jessi Colter, and Carissa Darling at the Dodge Theater on the occassion of Jessi's induction into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame on April 17, 2005.

left to right, Brian, Jessi Colter, and Carissa Darling

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Please enjoy the all new site, thehighwaymen.net

Please stay tuned as we will be updating the biography sections, and also the discography sections in the coming weeks. Feel free to view our extensive collection of photos and sign the guestbook.