Oct. 17 - Waylon

From Hilburn in the LAT: Waylon Jennings was a protégé of Buddy Holly, a roommate of Johnny Cash, a musical partner of Willie Nelson and a favorite of Bob Dylan — and a new, four-disc retrospective from RCA/Legacy Records shows why all those talents were drawn to him.

I'll even throw in another famous name for good measure: Elvis Presley.He's who Jennings reminded me of the first time I saw him in the '60s in concert in Long Beach. The charismatic West Texas native performed only a half-dozen songs, but one, if memory serves, was a version of Gordon Lightfoot's "(That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me" in a voice so scorching and sensual it felt as if it could have burned a hole in the speakers.

At that moment, it was easy to picture Jennings as what Presley could have become if he had given up the wiggle and concentrated on progressive country music in the '60s rather than spend all those years making hapless movies.

The new boxed set, "Nashville Rebel," is an ambitious retrospective — nearly 100 tracks and a 144-page illustrated booklet — and the highlights are as dynamic as his Long Beach show.


And in that same article, about Tony Bennett: Bennett's ties to soulful elements in those days didn't capture the media's attention the way the Ray's did, but a youngster in Memphis, Tenn., in the early '50s surely noticed. Twenty years later, in fact, Presley recorded his version of "Rags to Riches."