Listening to Waylon Jennings sing on his first RCA album Folk Country is like listening to a genius take his first steps. The classic hard-to-classify individualism is there and while the record does fall easily within the classic 'Nashville sound,' even if it features Waylon and his own band. Highlights on this album include his own "Cindy of New Orleans," "I'm A Man of constant Sorrow," and "That's The chance I'll Have To take." The record also features some great Harlan Howard numbers like "What's Left of Me" and the hit "Stop The World (And Let Me Off)," A song that Dwight Yoakam later recorded on a tribute album and has since become a fan favorite.
The second album found on this new two album (on a single disc) collection is Waylon Sings Ol' Harlan, a 12 song collection of Harlan Howard penned-tunes, many of which were already hits or would go on to become great hits -for other artists- later on. The record was Waylon's fourth for RCA Records and Chet Atkins and it was recorded a year after Folk Country. That's how things were done in those days; they recorded multiple songs at different sessions and processed two to three albums a year for consumption by fans. Classic Harlan Howard songs like "Heartaches By The Number," "Busted” and two Buck Owens' co-writes/classics in "Tiger By The Tail" and "Foolin' Around" are on this collection along with "She Called Me Baby" and "Woman, Let Me Sing You A Song."
While both of these recordings aren't chock full-o-classic Waylon songs like his 1970's work, Folk Country and Waylon Sings Ol' Harlan are still very much worth picking up as they make for entertaining listening and they really do hold up better than one might think old recordings would.
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