by Regina Nicolardi

Waylon Jennings’ long time recording and touring band, Waymore’s Outlaws, has a somewhat familiar gig of late – they are on the road playing alongside Waylon’s son Shooter Jennings for a host of dates. The four piece band, fronted by Tommy Townsend, who played with Waylon since the 1960s primed the audience at the Ardmore Music Hall this past Friday with an opening set of some classic Waylon tunes such as “Good Ol’ Boys”.

After, Shooter took to the stage solo with a guitar and keyboard. His voice was honest and raw. With each note you see the crowd drawing into him. He makes this already intimate venue somehow seem even more personal as he gets lost in “All This Could Have Been Yours”. Waymore’s Outlaws joined back up on stage to add their legendary sound to this anti-genre, anti-establishment rocker with country roots and a well defined philosophy of what outlaw country is and isn’t — as expressed during songs “Nashville From Afar” and “Outlaw You”.

Spanning Shooter’s catalog with early songs like the gritty revival tune “Manifesto No. 1” to some covers such as George Jones’ “The Door”. For two hours Jennings and Waymore’s Outlaws kept the room grooving with the steady driving drums of Richie Albright, Jerry ‘Jigger’ Bridges bass licks, and Fred Newell’s smokey steel guitar.