"The Cowboy (Small Texas Town)" Released: August 15, 2025
Songbird is an upcoming posthumous album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, set to be released on October 3, 2025 by Thirty Tigers and Son of Jessi. The release includes previously unreleased full length songs recorded by Jennings along with The Waylors from 1973 to 1984, during the height of their careers.[1][2]
Remastering, mixing, and engineering process; and further production
In 2008 Shooter Jennings began the process of digitizing some of the audio files of the tracks featured on Songbird, later in 2014 he would have a significant update further restoring the tracks, however with no actual digital alteration to any of the files. Up until the summer of 2024, he did not have the ability or time to fully access and explore the archives he had in his possession, therefore they were unheard. What he would come to find, was hundreds of full length and full band recordings of Waylon and The Waylors from a span of a little over a decade, during their downtime from touring. Using a 1976 DeMedio Custom API Console he had at his disposal at "Snake Mountain" studio (Sunset Sound Studio 3), he finished the tracks with fully analog production, and had very minimal production past what was already on the tapes.[2][3][4][5]
Initial recording process
Track 2 on the album, "The Cowboy (Small Texas Town)", was recorded on April 13, 1978 during the I've Always Been Crazy sessions with 2 later overdubs by Fred Carter Jr. on guitar on April 14th and June 9th of that year. One other track was also recorded during these sessions, with a cover of JJ Cale's "I'd Like to Love You Baby", the albums 3rd track, being recorded in April of 1978. It would later receive an overdub by Jessi Colter in December of 1980.[citation needed]
Release
On June 15, 2024, it was revealed by Shooter Jennings on social media that he had in his possession, a "treasure trove" of unreleased Waylon Jennings full-band and full-length recordings from the 1970s through the 1980s.[6]
On June 11, 2025 the album's first single, a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird", was released via an unlisted YouTube video on the YouTube channel, Wizard's Rainbow, Shooter Jennings' gaming channel. The song would get found and leak on Reddit via the Waylon Jennings subreddit on the 13th.[7] Along with the single's leak it was confirmed through the description of the video that 2 albums would directly follow this album at a later date, all being released under the Black Country Rock Media label through their Son of Jessi imprint, alongside Thirty Tigers.[8]
On June 15 at midnight, the single was officially released to streaming, marking Waylon's first new solo batch of work released since 2012, and the album was put up for pre-save and pre-order.[9][2]
On August 15, the album's second and final single, "The Cowboy (Small Texas Town)", co-written with fellow Texan Johnny Rodriguez, was released.[10]
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