Unreleased Waylon Jennings Song “Songbird” Apparently Leaks On YouTube, New Album Of Previously-Unheard Music Reportedly Coming In October

Are we finally about to hear that new Waylon Jennings music?

Of course when I say “new” I really mean “new to us.”

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

The country music legend 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. But Shooter revealed via Instagram that he’s 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:

“I’m in possession of a treasure trove of previously unheard full band Waylon Jennings multi-track recording from the 70’s and early 80’s and I have begun preparing the material to be mixed…

These are not demos. These are not unfinished, but, they will take some time to explore, prepare, and mix. You’ve got something to look forward to – there will be new, classic Waylon Jennings music in 2025. Stay tuned.”

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And it sounds like the release of the songs, or album, whatever it is, is not too far off. Last month, Waylon’s Instagram account shared a cryptic post which featured old photos of Waylon and Jessi, as well as some new photos of Shooter in the studio.

Yesterday, he posted an update on his personal Instagram account, thanking fans for all of their support over the years and saying that he is going to be posting more on the Waylon social media accounts, sharing personal memories, photos and more news in order to get everyone ready for “some really cool Waylon stuff that’s coming up.”

I have to imagine (or at least hope) that the music we’ve been so patiently waiting to hear might be coming very soon…

“Hey y’all, it’s Shooter. I just wanted to take a minute to thank all the wonderful Waylon fans for keeping his memory alive all these years. Singing his songs,  playing his songs, listening to his music. I gotta say, you guys are the best fan base in the world, the love that comes in daily means the world to me and my family.

And I wanted to let you know that I’m going to be posting on social media now a little here and there on the Waylon pages some personal memories, some messages, getting you guys ready for some really cool Waylon stuff that’s coming up.”

Well earlier today, Shooter’s YouTube account posted an unreleased Waylon song called “Songbird,” which was set to a compilation video featuring footage of Waylon’s 44th birthday party in Nashville back in 1981, among other footage.

The video was quickly made private, but in the description, it gave us some background on the “new” song:

“In June of 2024, Shooter Jennings unearthed and cataloged his father’s personal recording collection of tapes. Inside he found enough finished songs to release three albums. One of the first songs he found was “Songbird”. Though that song didn’t need any additional musicians, Shooter enlisted Ashley Monroe and Elizabeth Cook to sing backgrounds on the song.”

The video description also revealed that there are enough songs for three albums of unreleased Waylon music, with the first slated to drop October 3.

For the albums, Shooter enlisted four living members of Waylon’s band to work on the songs that “needed a little musical love.”

There’s been no official announcement of the albums, or the song which is apparently slated to drop next Wednesday.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see whether all the information on the since-deleted YouTube video is correct, but it sounds like we may be getting new Waylon Jennings music sooner rather than later.The post Unreleased Waylon Jennings Song “Songbird” Apparently Leaks On YouTube, New Album Of Previously-Unheard Music Reportedly Coming In October first appeared on Whiskey Riff.