The Highwaymen: The Road Goes On Forever : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

It must've been a hoot for Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson to play together as the Highwaymen. But on the supergroup's third album, 1995's The Road Goes On Forever, they were also aiming for commercial vindication at a time when country music felt hollow. As a result, producer Don Was gave rock-ish numbers like "The Devil's Right Hand" a piercing brightness; listening to them is like trying to get a good look at Mount Rushmore with the sun right in your eyes. The gravy is in the six bonus cuts, mostly loose acoustic demos, particularly Jennings' "I Ain't Song," a lyrical smackdown of new Nashville that disses Billy Ray Cyrus as "out of tune." The bonus DVD is even better -- the four men sitting around with guitars trying out songs, including Kristofferson's gracious handling of "Sister Sinead/Concerning the god-awful mess that she made."