Released September 25, 2012 Length 44:38 Producer Robby Turner | Label Saguaro Road | |
Goin' Down Rockin' The Last Recordings(2012) Old 97's & Waylon Jennings(2013) | ||
Goin' Down Rockin': The Last Recordings is a posthumous album by country music singer Waylon Jennings, released on September 25, 2012. The release includes eight unreleased songs written and recorded by Jennings along with his bassist Robby Turner during the last years of his life as well as eight songs never released before in any version.
Contents
Jennings recorded the songs only playing his guitar and singing while accompanied by Turner on the bass. Further instrumentation was planned, but it was stopped due to Jennings' death in 2002. Turner completed the recordings ten years later with the help of members of Jennings' band The Waylors.
Recording
During his last years of life, Jennings recorded several tracks along with his steel guitarist/bassist Robby Turner. The recordings consisted on twelve songs that Jennings considered that expressed his feelings and reflections at the time. Featuring vocals and guitar playing by Jennings, with the accompaniment of Turner on the bass, further instrumentation was planned to be added, but the project was stopped when Jennings died in 2002. Ten years later, Turner gathered along with Reggie Young, Richie Albright, Tony Joe White, and other members of Jennings' band, The Waymore Blues Band, to complete the tracks. Eight of the twelve unreleased songs were written by Jennings, with the addition of Tony Joe White's original "Goin' Down Rockin" and Willie Nelson's "Sad Songs and Waltzes".
Release
The existence of the recordings was known by Jennings' wife, Jessi Colter and his son, Shooter Jennings. The family was not comfortable with marketing Jennings' image after his death, feeling that they would "capitalize" on it. Ten years later, they approved the release of the finished songs by Turner. The album was released on September 25, 2012 by Saguaro Road Records.
The family asked Kris Kristofferson to write something about Waylon Jennings. What Kristofferson wrote can be seen on the cover.