| Are You Ready for the Country | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 1976 | |||
| Recorded | March 22, 1976 – April 21, 1976 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 36:06 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer |
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| Waylon Jennings chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Are You Ready for the Country | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Rolling Stone | (Not Rated) [2] |
Are You Ready for the Country is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1976.
Are You Ready For the Country was the first solo LP Jennings released after the phenomenally successful Wanted! The Outlaws compilation, the first million selling album in country music. It was co-produced by Jennings and Ken Mansfield and recorded at Sounds Lab in Hollywood, his first sessions in Hollywood since a recording session for A&M in 1964. According to the 2004 reissue liner notes, most of the basic tracks were recorded between March 24 and March 27. Despite its title, the album contains several rock covers as the Texan continued developing his brand of progressive country music that had helped spur the outlaw country movement. However, critics have noted that Are You Ready For the Country does not have the cohesion that had characterized some of his previous studio efforts like Honky Tonk Heroes . Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic observes:
The album's biggest hit was Toy Caldwell's "Can't You See," a song by southern rockers Marshall Tucker Band that had also been featured on Hank Williams, Jr.'s 1975 Hank Williams, Jr. and Friends LP. The Jennings version peaked at #4 on the country singles chart and reached #97 on the pop chart. The title track (which hit #7) is a song from Neil Young's seminal 1972 album Harvest and appeared in the 1982 film The Executioner's Song (Jennings would record the duet "Bound For Glory" with Young on his 1985 Old Ways album). Young's contemporary Graham Nash contributes background vocals to "MacArthur Park (Revisited)", a contemporary take on Jennings' Grammy award winning 1969 single with The Kimberlys. "Precious Memories" is a rare foray into the gospel field for Jennings. According to Rich Kienzel's liner notes for the 2004 reissue, "Gospel was an area Waylon rarely explored, perhaps because his own religious beliefs included a longstanding ambivalence about organized religion. As a kid in Texas, he briefly aspired to preach, only to conclude the rigid teachings of his family's church, the Church of Christ, didn't reflect his own more liberal, inclusive philosophies about God and Man." In another nod to the past, "Old Friend" was written by Jennings about Buddy Holly; the latter had been a close friend of his until his death in 1959. Jennings would continue to include Holly songs on his albums and in his live set, crediting the fellow Texan for helping shape his musical vision. Jennings also contributed the contrite "I'll Go Back to Her" (which reached #4) and "Too Good Woman (#7), both songs addressing similar themes of forgiveness and repentance. The singer continued to mine the songbooks of fellow "outlaw" songwriters as well; Donnie Fritts, who had penned the ballad "We Had It All" for Jennings' Honky Tonk Heroes album, wrote the album track "Them Old Love Songs" with Troy Seals, and Shel Silverstein co-wrote the weary "A Couple More Years."
The album was eventually certified gold, with four top ten singles, and topped the Billboard country albums chart. It also hit #34 on the pop charts. Allmusic states that Are You Ready For the Country is "the first time since the late '60s that one of Jennings' albums felt like less than the sum of its parts, and if it didn't necessarily mark the end of the era, it did mark the point when he started to ease back from his startling peak of creativity." Amazon.com: "Waylon was always sort of a rock-star type within the world of country music, so this 1976 album seemed like a natural..."
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Are You Ready for the Country" | Neil Young | 3:12 |
| 2. | "Them Old Love Songs" | Donnie Fritts, Troy Seals | 3:13 |
| 3. | "So Good Woman" | Waylon Jennings | 2:03 |
| 4. | "Jack-A-Diamonds" | Daniel Moore | 3:27 |
| 5. | "Can't You See" | Toy Caldwell | 3:46 |
| 6. | "MacArthur Park (Revisited)" | Jimmy Webb | 6:39 |
| 7. | "I'll Go Back to Her" | Jennings | 3:10 |
| 8. | "A Couple More Years" | Dennis Locorriere, Shel Silverstein | 4:11 |
| 9. | "Old Friend" | Jennings | 3:23 |
| 10. | "Precious Memories" | Jennings, Ken Mansfield | 3:42 |
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
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| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA) [7] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the outlaw movement in country music.
Outlaw country is a subgenre of American country music created by a small group of iconoclastic artists active in the 1970s and early 1980s, known collectively as the outlaw movement, who fought for and won their creative freedom outside of the Nashville establishment that dictated the sound of most country music of the era. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Paycheck and David Allan Coe were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
Mirriam Johnson, known professionally as Jessi Colter, is an American country singer who is best known for her collaborations with her second husband, country musician Waylon Jennings, and for her 1975 crossover hit "I'm Not Lisa".
Honky Tonk Heroes is a country music album by Waylon Jennings, released in 1973 on RCA Victor. With the exception of the final track on the album, "We Had It All", all of the songs on the album were written or co-written by Billy Joe Shaver. The album is considered an important piece in the development of the outlaw sub-genre in country music as it revived the honky tonk music of Nashville and added elements of rock and roll to it.
This Time is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1974, at the peak of the outlaw country movement. It was produced by Jennings and Willie Nelson.
The Ramblin' Man is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1974.
Dreaming My Dreams is the twenty-second studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings. The album was co-produced with Jack Clement and recorded at Glaser Sound Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, between February and July 1974.
Wanted! The Outlaws is a compilation album by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser, released by RCA Records in 1976. The album consists of previously released material with four new songs. Released to capitalize on the new outlaw country movement, Wanted! The Outlaws earned its place in music history by becoming the first country album to be platinum-certified, reaching sales of one million.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released in 1979 by RCA Records.
Leather and Lace is a duet album by Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, released on RCA Records in 1981.
Waylon Live is a live album by Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1976.
Ol' Waylon is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings. It was released on RCA Victor in 1977. It eventually became one of Jennings' highest-selling albums, due in no small part to the phenomenal success of the chart-topping "Luckenbach, Texas ." It was also the singer's fourth solo album in a row to reach the top of the country charts, remaining there for thirteen weeks and becoming country music's first platinum album by any single solo artist.
Black on Black is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1982.
It's Only Rock & Roll is an album by Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1983.
Mark Nelson Chesnutt is an American country music singer and songwriter. Between 1990 and 1999, he had his greatest chart success recording for Universal Music Group Nashville's MCA and Decca branches, with a total of eight albums between those two labels. During this timespan, Chesnutt also charted twenty top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which eight reached number one: "Brother Jukebox", "I'll Think of Something", "It Sure Is Monday", "Almost Goodbye", "I Just Wanted You to Know", "Gonna Get a Life", "It's a Little Too Late", and a cover of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". His first three albums for MCA along with a 1996 Greatest Hits package issued on Decca are all certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); 1994's What a Way to Live, also issued on Decca, is certified gold. After a self-titled album in 2002 on Columbia Records, Chesnutt has continued to record predominantly on independent labels.
"Honky Tonk Blues" was a hit country and western song written and performed by Hank Williams. The original 1952 recording was a major hit, and it later became a hit for Charley Pride.
The Waylors, later Waymore's Outlaws, is a country music band, best known as the backing and recording band of country music singer Waylon Jennings. Jennings formed the band in 1961, consisting of Jerry Gropp on the guitar and Richie Albright on the drums after moving to Phoenix, Arizona. The band earned a local fan base during its appearances on the night club JD's.
"Why Baby Why" is a country music song co-written and originally recorded by George Jones. Released in late 1955 on Starday Records and produced by Starday co-founder and Jones' manager Pappy Daily, it peaked at 4 on the Billboard country charts that year. It was Jones' first chart single, following several unsuccessful singles released during the prior year on Starday.
"Honky Tonkin'" is a 1947 country music song, written and recorded by Hank Williams. His song went to #14 on the Billboard country music chart in 1948. In 1982, it became the sixth chart topping single for Williams' son, Hank Williams Jr.
"Are You Ready for the Country?" is a song written by Neil Young and released on his 1972 Harvest album. The track features Young on piano backed by the studio band dubbed The Stray Gators, comprising Jack Nitzsche on slide guitar, Ben Keith on pedal steel guitar, Tim Drummond on bass, and Kenny Buttrey on drums. Backing vocals on the track are by David Crosby and Graham Nash. The recording was made in a studio set up in a barn on Young's ranch.
