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Waylon
The Buddy Holly Center is
proud to present an exhibition in the Texas musician’s
Hall of Fame that honors Waylon Jennings, the
late country music singer from Littlefield, Texas.
The exhibition will opened Wednesday, August 28th at
the Buddy Holly Center in conjunction with
Not
Fade Away: The Second Annual Buddy Holly Music Festival and Symposium.
Waylon Jennings was born in 1937
in Littlefield, Texas, learned his first guitar chords from his mother at
age eight, and by 1949 was deejaying at a local radio station. Recognizing
that his options were either to "pull cotton or play music," he
moved to Lubbock in 1954, and met Buddy Holly the following year at
Lubbock's KDAV. Buddy produced Waylon's first single, "Jole Blon,"
and Waylon played bass in Buddy's band from 1958 until the fatal plane
crash in February 1959. After Buddy's death, Waylon went to ground as a
deejay in Lubbock, and then moved to Phoenix, where he formed his own
band. He worked clubs with the Waylors and as a producer in Phoenix in the
early '60s, while building a catalog of original releases on Ramco,
A&M, and RCA. He moved to Nashville in 1965, and in the late '60s
chalked up a string of singles produced by Chet Atkins, including
"That's the Chance I'll Have to Take," "Stop the World (And
Let Me Off)," "Anita, You're Dreaming," and "Green
River." By 1968's "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line," he
was regularly placing songs in the country Top Five, and in 1969 teamed up
musically and personally with Jessi Colter.
The
early '70s were a frustrating period, as Waylon began to insist upon more
control over song choice, production, and use of the Waylors in the
studio.
Sick and bored, he was considering quitting the business, when long-time
drummer Richie Albright said "there's another way to do this, and
it's rock and roll." Albright convinced Waylon to buck the Nashville
system, initially with Wanted: The Outlaws, a magnificent
collaboration with Colter and Tompall Glaser. Throughout the '70s his
vision of "outlaw country," with Willie Nelson, Kris
Kristofferson, and others, ruled the country charts, while his appearance
on the soundtrack and in the footage of the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard
kept him in front of the wider public. He continued to make great records
with the Waylors and with Willie, Johnny Cash, and Kristofferson, and
covered songs by artists as diverse as Cash, Los Lobos, and Bob Dylan.
1993’s
boxed set Only Daddy That'll Walk
the Line: The RCA Years celebrated the 1965-85 period, and in 1996 he
appeared on the Lollapalooza tour, performing several dates with Metallica,
Soundgarden, and Rancid. His Waylon:
An Autobiography, co-authored by Lenny Kaye, was released the same
year. The live album The Waymor
Blues Band: Never Say Die, Live! was released in October 2001. Waylon
died on February 13, 2002 after a battle with diabetes.
Waylon,
an exhibition curated by the Buddy Holly Center, features many of
Waylon Jennings’ personal possessions and items loaned by fans from
around the country, Waylon’s son Buddy Jennings, and Darryl Holland of
Lubbock. Items on exhibit include photographs from Buddy Jennings
private collection, awards that Waylon received, clothing, jewelry,
several jackets, and a signature guitar. This exhibit was put
together specifically for display in Lubbock at the Buddy Holly Center,
and many of the items are on public display for the first time.
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