The following is a list of notable outlaw country artists.
William Hugh Nelson is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. The critical success of his album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.
David Allan Coe is an American singer and songwriter. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville. He initially played mostly in the blues style, before transitioning to country music, becoming a major part of the 1970s outlaw country scene. His biggest hits include "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", "Longhaired Redneck", "The Ride", "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile", and "She Used to Love Me a Lot".
Johnny Paycheck was an American country music singer and Grand Ole Opry member notable for recording the David Allan Coe song "Take This Job and Shove It". He achieved his greatest success in the 1970s as a force in country music's "outlaw movement" popularized by artists Hank Williams Jr., Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, and Merle Haggard. In 1980, Paycheck appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits, though in the ensuing decade, his music career slowed due to drug, alcohol, and legal problems. He served a prison sentence in the early 1990s, and his declining health effectively ended his career in early 2000.
Outlaw country is a subgenre of American country music created by a small group of 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, Kris Kristofferson, David Allan Coe and Jerry Jeff Walker were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
Tanya Denise Tucker is an American country music singer and songwriter who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13. During her career Tucker became one of the few child performers to mature into adulthood without losing her audience; she had a streak of top-10 and top-40 hits. She has had several successful albums, several Country Music Association award nominations, and hit songs including 1973's "What's Your Mama's Name?" and "Blood Red and Goin' Down", 1975's "Lizzie and the Rainman", 1988's "Strong Enough to Bend", and 1992's "Two Sparrows in a Hurricane". Tucker's 2019 album While I'm Livin' won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album, and "Bring My Flowers Now" from that same album won Tucker a shared songwriting Grammy for Best Country Song.
Billy Joe Shaver was an American singer, songwriter and actor.
Waylon Albright "Shooter" Jennings is an American musician and record producer. He is the son of country singers Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. In a career spanning three decades, Jennings has explored a variety of musical genres.
Contemporary Country is a 22-volume series issued by Time-Life during the early 1990s, spotlighting country music of the 1970s through mid 1990s.
Michael Siegfried Raphael is an American harmonica player, music producer and actor best known for his work with Willie Nelson, with whom he has toured as part of The Family since 1973.
Waylon is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released in 1970 on RCA Victor.
Outlaw Country is a Sirius XM Radio channel devoted to outlaw country music, along with various related genres including classic honky tonk, alternative country and roots rock. It is carried on Sirius XM Radio channel 62 and DISH Network channel 6060.
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 Studios 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.
I've Always Been Crazy is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1978.
Nashville Rebel is a box set by Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Nashville through Legacy Recordings in 2006. According to AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, it is "the first comprehensive, multi-label Waylon Jennings retrospective ever assembled," comprising ninety-two songs recorded between [1958 and 1994, with selections from the majority of the singer's recording career. The first track of the box set is the Buddy Holly-produced "Jole Blon," released in 1958, while the last is "I Do Believe," a song produced by Don Was that was included on The Highwaymen's 1995 release, The Road Goes On Forever. The other material on the box set covers Jennings' career chronologically, with songs ranging from his years on RCA's roster to later compositions from his short-lived stay at Epic Records; it ignores, however, the tracks from Jennings albums released on independent labels. The majority of the singer's charting singles are included in the package, as are collaborations such as "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" with Willie Nelson and "Highwayman" with The Highwaymen. A notable addition is the previously unreleased "The Greatest Cowboy of Them All," a 1978 duet with Johnny Cash which was later recorded by Cash alone for A Believer Sings the Truth (1979) and The Mystery of Life (1991); two others, "It's Sure Been Fun" and "People in Dallas Got Hair," had never been released in the United States. Nashville Rebel was released on four CDs, with a 140-page booklet and liner notes by Rich Kienzle and Lenny Kaye.
"Mama Tried" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in July 1968 as the first single and title track from the album Mama Tried. The song became one of the cornerstone songs of his career. It won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999, and was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry due to its "cultural, historic, or artistic significance" on March 23, 2016, just 14 days before Haggard's death. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 376 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Jody Payne was an American country musician and singer. He is best known as a longtime guitarist in Willie Nelson's band, The Family.
Django and Jimmie is the sixth and final collaborative studio album by American country music artists Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. It was released on June 2, 2015, by Legacy Recordings. The album was Haggard's final studio album prior to his death of pneumonia in April 2016, 10 months after its release.
Son of the South is an album released by country musician David Allan Coe. It was released in 1986 on Columbia.
An "Outlaw Country" artist in the truest sense, Biram signed with Bloodshot in 2005
Clark, who was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004, was long known as a pioneer of the outlaw country subgenre
Country-rock songwriter Lee Clayton arguably was responsible the term "outlaw country" in 1972
Steve Earle reaffirms his country outlaw status with the appropriately titled, outlaw country primer So You Want to Be an Outlaw.
If Kinky Friedman had done nothing more than share his daring and defiant brand of outlaw country in the early '70s and merely mined his associations with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson as part of that celebrity circle, it likely would have been enough to ensure his immortality.
NPR music reviewer Meredith Ochs shares her picks for the year's best CDs, from the "sacred-meets-profane" rock of the White Stripes to outlaw country singer Merle Haggard.
Price tends to be slotted into the Outlaw Country category by journalists, who liken her to genre pillars Tanya Tucker and Emmylou Harris.
His sound is described as outlaw country blending sounds of country, rock and roll, blues and folk music.
Lewis is leaving his performing band the Stateliners behind to share his brand of outlaw country in "its purest form," with only a microphone and his acoustic guitar.
Tritt was an outsider, playing a mix of Southern rock and outlaw country in Atlanta bar bands before signing a record deal.