Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings’ “Waylon & Willie” Album Is Pure Country Gold

Waylon and Willie country music

Can we please bring back collaborative albums?

One of my favorite parts of country music history is the amount of legends that teamed up to make an album or two.

George Jones and Tammy Wynette, The Highwaymen, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, just to name a few, combined to make some of the most memorable albums of all-time, yet the collaborative album is no where to be found in today’s country music scene, be it mainstream or not, and I demand it make a return, we’ve been starved of it for too long.

I digress…

While the above are all absolutely phenomenal, there’s one that really takes first place as far as I’m concerned.

In 1978, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings teamed up for Waylon & Willie and my goodness it doesn’t get better than this.

The album quickly went Number One and spent 10 weeks atop the Billboard Country Albums chart with 126 weeks charting in total.

The biggest hit from the project was “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys,” the Ed Bruce song that became one of the most influential in the genre’s history, fueled by this cut, Chris LeDoux’s and The Highwaymen’s version.

Shooter Jennings and Lukas Nelson later recorded it as the theme song for the hit Netflix series, The Ranch.

“Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys”

But the album also contained one of the most underrated songs of all-time, “If You Can Touch Her At All.” It’s an absolutely beautiful ode to a complex woman who has the guy enchanted, yet unable to fully hold on to her.

Honestly, one of my all-time favorite songs and their version is just phenomenal.

“If You Can Touch Her At All”

This entire album is fantastic.

Put it on, grab a drink and have a hell of a weekend.

“I Can Get Off On You”

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A RIFF ON WHAT COUNTRY IS REALLY ABOUT

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