Waylon Jennings' 'Songbird' raises this country great from the grave

This is quite a tale: Shooter, son of Waylon Jennings, discovers a tranche of his father’s personal multitrack tapes from the analogue years, dating between 1973 – when he wrestled artistic control from RCA – and 1984, when he had quit cocaine, joined The Outlaws and digital technology took over everything.

The tapes were shelved for 40 years, until Shooter took them down, opened them up and brought them to Sunset Sound in 2024. He started digging through them, and found that rather than the demos he expected, many of these "lost" recordings were fully fledged tracks waiting for an album to take them in.

In fact, he has found three albums’ worth of songs, to be released from the original tapes decades after his father’s passing, and this, Songbird, is the first. Some have a few finishing touches added – backing vocals from Elizabeth Cook and Ashley Monroe, and a a lick or two from surviving members of The Waylors – guitarist Gordon Payne, bassist Jerry Bridges, keyboardist Barny Robertson and backing vocalist Carter Robertson.

It leads off with a fine cover of the Fleetwood Mac Rumours classic, Jennings’ country baritone perfectly suited and booted for the Songbird in question, before easing into outlaw legend Johnny Rodriguez’s “The Cowboy (Small Texas Town)” recorded by Waylon and the Waylers in 1978 while making his I’ve Always Been Crazy album. JJ Cale’s two-timing 1974 classic, “I’d Like to Love You Baby” comes with a sprightly gait that eases into the languor and ease of Johnny Cash’s “I’m Gonna Lay Back With My Woman”. Jesse Winchester’s leave-taking ballad, “Farewell Tennessee Waltz”, is a heartbreaker and an absolute beauty of a performance that’s set beside a tear-soaked Hank Williams classic “I Don’t Have Any More Love Songs”. Follow that up with the bottomless despair of the closing “Dink’s Song” and you’ll be tear-soaked too.

• More New Music reviews on theartsdesk
• Tim Cumming's website