Honky Tonk Heroes
| Honky Tonk Heroes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Waylon Jennings | ||||
| Released | July 1973 | |||
| Recorded | 1973, RCA Victor Studios; Nashville, Tennessee | |||
| Genre |
Country Outlaw country |
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| Length | 27:21 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Waylon Jennings Tompall Glaser, Ronny Light, Ken Mansfield |
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| Waylon Jennings chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The Music Journal | Favorable. |
| Stereo Review | Negative. |
| Allmusic |  |
Honky Tonk Heroes is a country music album by Waylon Jennings, released in 1973 on RCA Victor. With the exception of "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 subgenre in country music as it helped revive the honky tonk music of Nashville by injecting a rock and roll attitude.
Jennings and manager Neil Reshen had renegotiated the singer's contract with RCA Records in 1972, which gave him creative control over his work. By 1973, Atlantic Records was attempting to sign Jennings who, with fellow country singer Willie Nelson, had become dissatisfied with RCA because of the company's conservative influence upon their music. Nelson, who had signed with Atlantic, was becoming more popular, and this persuaded RCA to renegotiate with Jennings before it lost another potential success. Jennings' music had already evolved from his early recordings with the label, especially on his previous three LPs Good Hearted Woman (1972), Ladies Love Outlaws (1972), and especially Lonesome, On'ry and Mean (1973). This evolution was spurred by the singer trying to capture the dynamics of his live sound on record (often by using his backing band the Waylors rather than studio musicians) and his choice of material, which often included songs composed by writers outside the Nashville mainstream.
Jennings had invited the then unknown Billy Joe Shaver to Nashville to write the songs for his next album after hearing him sing "Willy the Wandering Gypsy and Me" just before the 1972 Dripping Springs Reunion. When Shaver got to Nashville he spent six months unsuccessfully trying to speak with Jennings, who had apparently forgotten the invite; eventually, with the help of local D.J. Roger "Captain Midnight" Schutt, Shaver turned up at a RCA recording session Jennings was doing with producer Chet Atkins, and tried to confront the singer, who merely offered Shaver $100. Shaver refused the money and told Jennings that he was willing to fight him if he would not listen to his songs. In the 2003 documentary Beyond Nashville, Shaver recalls:
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