Imagine if Waylon Jennings came to see your band. Imagine if Waylon Jennings liked your band. Liked them enough to talk you up in press like The Austin Chronicle. Imagine your A&R guy telling you to write Waylon to thank him and see if he wanted to record some music with you.
Imagine if Waylon said yes.
Waylon Jennings attended an Old 97's gig in 1996, and later that year joined Ken Bethea, Murry Hammond, Rhett Miller and Philip Peeples in a studio in Nashville to cut two tracks. The youthful energy of Old 97's with the classic delivery of Waylon Jennings. Sadly, Waylon passed away and these recordings some of Jennings' last never saw the light of day.
Until now.
Omnivore Recordings is proud to announce the first ever release of those two songs, 'Iron Road and The Other Shoe.' 'Iron Road' would eventually arrive as a live version on 2005's Alive & Wired along with 'The Other Shoe' (which first appeared on Old 97's second album, 1995's Wreck Your Life.) To make it even more special, we're adding two more previously unissued demos: 'Visiting Hours' (a live version appeared on 2011's The Grand Theater Vol. 2) and 'Fireflies' (re-recorded by Rhett Miller for his acclaimed 2006 solo album The Believer.)