Shooter Jennings Announces THREE New Waylon Jennings Albums Are On The Way, Drops Unreleased ‘Songbird’ Cover From The Archive Today

Coming SOON.

Last year, Shooter Jennings, the son of country stars Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, made an incredibly exciting announcement that he had possession of new, never-before-heard Waylon music that he planned to eventually release to the world.

Waylon passed away in 2002, only a couple of months after he was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Following his death, a number of albums were released posthumously, with the last being Going Down Rocking: The Last Recordings in 2012. Shooter revealed via Instagram, though, has apparently uncovered some more classic Waylon tapes:

“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.”

The message went to describe the timeline for getting all of these left-behind recordings put together. In 2002, following the country icon’s passing, all of the tapes were gathered in one place. Six years later in 2008, the physical recordings were transferred to digital. Most recently, in 2014, the digital recording were upgraded to more modern digital storage.

Shooter described what he found as “massive historical documentation” of a man with “incredible friendship, work ethic and deep passion for playing and recording music.” He added that it was “way beyond my wildest fantasies”:

“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.”

But it doesn’t stop there…

Shooter, who is a highly-sought after musician and producer himself, is taking on a project to bring to life some of the “lost” tapes that Waylon left behind. Interestingly, he noted that they aren’t unfinished or even demos, but they still need to be mixed and professionally finished before they’re ready to be released.

And this morning, on Father’s Day, he gave an extremely exciting update, sharing on Instagram that he has THREE Waylon albums competed, and the first one, Songbird, will be out everywhere on October 3rd:

“I’ve been waiting so long to share this with you. It hasn’t been an easy road to get here, but it’s been one that has given me a new purpose in life. I dug through my dad’s old tapes and found a plethora of music by Waylon and the band at the peak of their abilities. For the stuff that wasn’t totally finished, I brought out four of the remaining original members of his band to put the finishing touches on it.

I was able to make three albums out of it and ‘Songbird’ is the first one. It’s coming out on October 3rd and you can pre-order all kinds of versions of it now… I have lots more in store for you, but for now, here is ‘Songbird,’ the beautiful Fleetwood Mac song written by Christine McVie and featuring Waylon, Richie Albright, Ralph Mooney, Jerry Bridges, Barny Robertson Gordon Payne, Ashley Monroe and Elizabeth Cook.

This video shows a compilation of videos recorded during the completion of the tracks across the three albums. Elizabeth Cook and Ashley Monroe were brought in to sing on “Songbird” and take it to new heavenly heights. Waylon Jennings is STILL THE KING!”

Amen to that…

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A post shared by Waylon Jennings (@officialwaylon)

The first song is “Songbird” which is a Fleetwood Mac song written by Christine McVie that features Waylon and some of his original band members, as well as current artists Ashley Monroe and Elizabeth Cook on backing vocals.

It’s incredible that Shooter discovered three albums worth of Waylon music that has never been heard, and the fact that he’s been able to professional mix and complete them, and wants the world to hear it all, is something special.

I’m sure many of us thought we’d never hear Waylon’s voice again, and while this is technically decades old, I can’t wait to hear it all and I know it’s in exceptional hands with Shooter. You can listen to “Songbird” below.

“Songbird”

The post Shooter Jennings Announces THREE New Waylon Jennings Albums Are On The Way, Drops Unreleased ‘Songbird’ Cover From The Archive Today first appeared on Whiskey Riff.