Nashville

Nashville

Great singer, good songwriter, underrated guitar player: Nashville Rebel supplies ample evidence that Waylon Jennings (1937-2003) was one of country music's best. Although the time frame (from 1970 to 1984) of this hour-long, 18-song collection is pretty narrow in the context of his entire career, it's revealing. When Jennings sang "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" on Johnny Cash's TV show in '70, he had already recorded at least ten albums (he'd also been in Buddy Holly's backing band, and had famously given up his seat on the plane that crashed with Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson on board) and was still a fairly standard, pompadoured product of the Nashville assembly line. But just four years later, as we see in four songs taken from Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, he'd become the bearded, long-haired outlaw who helped bring country to the rock 'n' roll generation. Notwithstanding some great pedal steel guitar playing by Ralph Mooney, these latter performances are subdued, maybe too much so, but Jennings' charisma and talent are still apparent. Much better are the five previously-unseen tunes from a TV show produced by singer-record producer (and Waylon's brother-in-law) Jack Clement, which include "Lonesome, "On'ry and Mean" and "Amanda" and find Jennings and his band sounding a good deal more lively and committed. And best of all are the last five live tunes, which include Jennings' most popular material, like "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)," "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys," "Good-Hearted Woman," and "Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way" (the final selections include three videos and two TV commercials). Although Jennings went on to form the Highwaymen with Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson, he never got the crossover acclaim that came to the others. That could be because he wasn't as iconic as Cash, as gregarious as Nelson, or a movie star like Kristofferson; or perhaps it was due to his substance abuse problems. Whatever, Waylon Jennings, a rebel indeed, is well-served by this release. --Sam Graham

Genre: Drama, Music
Director(s): Robert Altman
Production: Paramount Pictures
  Won 1 Oscar. Another 22 wins & 25 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.8
Rotten Tomatoes:
92%
R (Restricted)
Year:
1975
160
789 Views
Wild. Wonderful. Sinful. Laughing. Explosive.
The Home of Country Music
The damnedest thing you ever saw!

Howard K. Smith:
A little more than a year ago, a man named Hal Phillip Walker excited a group of college students with some questions. Have you stood on a high and windy hill and heard the acorns drop and roll? Have you walked in the valley beside the brook? Have you walked alone and remembered? Does Christmas smell like oranges to you? Within a commencement speech, such questions were fitting, perhaps, but hardly the material with which to launch a presidential campaign. Even those who pay close attention to politics probably saw Hal Phillip Walker and his Replacement Party as a bit of frost on the hillsides. Summer, if not late spring, would surely do away with all that. Well, now that summer along with presidential primaries is heavy upon us and the frost is still there, perhaps we should take a closer look. Hal Phillip Walker is, in a way, a mystery man. Out of nowhere with a handful of students and scarcely any pros, he's managed to win three presidential primaries and is given a fighting chance to take a fourth - Tennessee. A win in that state would take on added significance, for only once in the last fifty years has Tennessee failed to vote for the winning presidential candidate. No doubt many Americans, especially party-liners, wish that Hal Phillip Walker would go away, disappear like the natural frost and come again at some more convenient season. But wherever he may be going, it seems sure that Hal Phillip Walker is not going away. For there is genuine appeal and it must be related to the raw courage of this man. Running for President, willing to battle vast oil companies, eliminate subsidies to farmers, tax churches, abolish the Electoral College, change the National Anthem, and remove lawyers from government - especially from Congress. Well at this point, it would be wise to say most of us don't know the answer to Hal Phillip Walker. But to answer one of his questions, as a matter of fact, Christmas has always smelled like oranges to me.


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