Live From Austin Tx
This 1989 taping for theAustin City Limitsseries (also available on DVD) finds Waylon Jennings in fine form and particularly feisty spirits, from his playful jabs at hometown hero Willie Nelson through a definitive, go-for-the-throat rendition of Rodney Crowell's anthem "Ain't Living Long Like This." In addition to a litany of his "outlaw" hits from a decade or more earlier, he teams with wife Jessi Colter for duets on Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" and "Honky Tonk Angels" (the classic recorded by Hank Thompson as "The Wild Side of Life").  His cover of "Me and Bobby McGee" seems to draw inspiration from both Kris Kristofferson's original and Janis Joplin's hit. The crowd embraces the native Texan as a conquering hero. Spurred on, Jennings and the band bring a rough-hewn freshness to material that might otherwise seem way too familiar.--Don McLeese