Texas Music Magazine
Photo courtesy Blue Rose Music
At her recent record release show at the Continental Club in Austin, Shannon McNally explained that once she announced her upcoming release of
The Waylon Sessions, she got used to being asked, “Why an album of Waylon covers?” And her honest response? “Because I can.”
That response is pretty damn Waylon of McNally, as is her decision to put together a feminine reading of songs connected with one of country music’s most swaggering and tough outlaws. While musically McNally’s renditions don’t stray too far from the original source material (not a bad thing), hearing these songs sung by a woman makes them feel reimagined. And the songs hold up well, as does McNally’s vocal performance, a testament to her strength as a singer, considering that Jennings had one of the best voices in country music.
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Shannon McNally Tunes into an Outlaw Frequency for The Waylon Sessions
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28 May 2021
In the liner notes on Shannon McNally’s new record, the singer confessed that she’s had a long fascination with Waylon Jennings‘ music. She wrote, “Just the name ‘Waylon’ makes me sit up in my chair and look around like I might see an apparition or a buffalo standing in the living room…. I have always loved his defiantly existential but immediately accessible common man’s music and how it boogies.” That’s an odd way to describe the man and his music, but her reverence is clear.
While McNally had performed and recorded a few of Jennings’ songs in the past, she said she felt intimidated by his immense talent, which prevented her from covering his work more often. However, she jumped right in when the opportunity arose for her to make an album of nothing but Jennings’ tunes. Waylon had a long recording career that dated back to the 1950s and extended until the 21st century with 45 studio albums and almost 100 singles, including 16 number one hits. C
Article Contributed by IVPR | Published on Saturday, April 17, 2021
“I have always loved his defiantly existential but immediately accessible common man’s music and how it boogies,” says
Shannon McNally of the man whose timeless music is the subject of her new album THE WAYLON SESSIONS, Waylon Jennings. Upon the album’s completion, McNally’s collection of tunes ended up being not so much a tribute as it is a recontextualization; a nuanced, feminine rendering of a catalog long considered a bastion of hetero-masculinity. “The world has changed a lot since these songs were first recorded,” says McNally. “I have never heard a woman sing any of them, but these tunes are poignant and relevant to me and to women in general right now.”