Lethbridge got a taste of country music history on a Sunday night with Shooter Jennings, playing with his dad Waylon Jennings’ band Waymore’s Outlaws, Oct. 4 at Average Joes.
Waymore's Outlaws played their own set befo
re Shooter Jennings and gave the audience their Waylon Jennings fix, considering they had all played with Jennings at some time in their careers. They featured drummer Richie Albright, bass Jerry "Jigger" Bridges, steel guitar/ lead guitar Fred Newell, guitar/ vocals Tommy Townsend.
Townsend sounded more like Waylon Jennings than his son did.
He twanged and belted his way through a variety of Waylon Jennings’ hits like “Ra
iny Day Woman,“ Are you Sure Hank Done It This Way,” “Laid back Guitar Picker,” “Lonesome, Ornry and Mean” and “Always Been Crazy.”
They were supremely tight as they should have been. Also as expected, their set highlighted some gorgeous steel guitar from Fred Newell, who added some excellent Willie Nelson twang by plugging his nose to sing “ Always Been Crazy.”
They ended their set with a couple of Waylon Jennings’ best known hits — the Dukes of Hazzard theme “ The Good Ol’ Boys,” and “Good Hearted Woman.”
Shooter Jennings began his set carrying on in his old man’s vein by starting his set with “Ain’t Living Long Like This.”
He had a more or less straight ahead southern rock feel to his voice instead of the country twang of his dad.
He followed up that with a very catchy upbeat rocker I think was called “ Set Me Up.” That was followed by a couple of his anti-Nashville establishment themed songs including “ Nashville from Afar” and “Big City Living.”
He played his excellent version of the Ramones’ “ She Talks to Rainbows early in the set.
He had the audience singing along with his own “Gunslinger,“ for which the band stepped back and pretty much let him perform on his own, before re-joining mid song.
He switched back to acoustic for a Shel Silverstein song “Gone to Carolina.”
He ended his set without doing an encore just before 11 p.m. with his song “Fourth of July” which he dedicated to his friend and manager Col. Jon Hensley, who passed away earlier this year.
I was hoping to hear hear their cover of “Walk of Life” as well as Jennings’ own “Outlaw You” and “Mama it’s My Medicine” but it was not to be.
I missed opening act, Saskatchewan's Colter Wall as the show started at 7:30, not 8 p.m. as I expected. But I caught Ridley Bent and Chris Dunn playing an energetic of acoustic country with a rock and roll edge.
They started with “Buckles and Boots,” one of several rodeo themed songs, a song about love and music with 9 Inch Nails and “ I Turned My Back On The Bottle,” another which drew a lot of cheers from the crowd who stayed seated, for the most part.
They had a great mix so I could hear every word and every note of lead guitarist Chris Dunn's solos. He played some beautiful slide guitar and they even had a couple of people two stepping.
Ridley Bent hit many of the highlights of his repertoire including “SuicideWinder” which brought he set to a close after the rocking “Heartland Heartbreak.”
