Norah, Henry Salute Waylon

Former BR5-49 singer/guitarist Chuck Mead and engineer/bassist Dave Roe have enlisted Norah Jones, Henry Rollins, John Doe, Kris Kristofferson, Allison Moorer and others for Lonesome On'ry and Mean: A Tribute to Waylon Jennings, due April 15th on Dualtone.

For Mead and Roe, assembling the album is old hat. The pair were responsible for last year's Dressed in Black tribute to Johnny Cash, which featured Hank Williams III, the Rev. Horton Heat and Robbie Fulks.

On Lonesome On'ry and Mean, Jennings' contemporaries are represented by Kristofferson, who puts his stamp on "I Do Believe," and Cowboy Jack who does likewise with "Cowboy Sings the Blues." On the rock & roll side, Rollins covers the title track, while Doe does "The Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" and former Blasters' guitarist Dave Alvin does "Amanda." Other contributors include singer-songwriters Guy Clark ("Good Hearted Woman"), Robert Earl Keen ("Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way") and Alejandro Escovedo ("Lock Stock and Teardrops").

The fifteen-track album will also feature contributions by Nanci Griffith, Radney Foster, Junior Brown, Carlene Carter and Jennings' former bandmates the Crickets.

Lonesome On'ry and Mean is one of two Jennings tributes due this year. Jennings' label, RCA, will also release I've Always Been Crazy in April. It features Metallica's James Hetfield, Kid Rock, Ben Harper and others.

Jennings, a country music legend credited with launching the genre's outlaw movement in the Seventies, died in February 2002 of complications from diabetes.

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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