Track Listing

1. Highwayman
2. Last Cowboy Song
3. Jim, I Wore a Tie Today
4. Big River
5. Committed to Parkview
6. Desperados Waiting for a Train
7. Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) - Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Johnny Rodriguez
8. Welfare Line
9. Against the Wind
10. Twentieth Century Is Almost Over

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37927 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
The myth of the American West--lawless lands, resolute heroes--takes on a grave, elegiac quality on this first, and best, collaboration from Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson. There's little bravado here, just a sense of ticking time, of frontiers lost, cowboys singing their last songs. In the end, Highwayman works because it fuses mythic, serious material with the artists' own legendary personas and well-aged voices. Lesser lights would be lucky to muddle through Jimmy Webb's epic title track; these four cagey desperados make every fantastic image believable. If Chips Moman surrounds them with less than subtle layers of guitars, keyboards, and drums, he does update vintage progressive country in a suitably cosmic but rugged fashion. Romantic legends and production values notwithstanding, it's the tough, wise singing here that's the real draw. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews

Four Voices Singing Sad Tales
This is my one and only country music CD, and it is not "feel good" music. The Highwaymen sing, in their four distinctive voices, of a vanishing, sad West - where the cowboys are gone, the migrants are deported, and good friends die. The most upbeat song, if you can call it that, is the first - Highwayman - a tale of living for eternity. But who says music must be a happy narcotic? These tales of gloom and doom perfectly capture the howling emptiness of the Western U.S. It is best listened to when you are in a contemplative mood, when you are driving across those empty, blast-furnace spaces of the desert Southwest.

Classic men and a classic grouping.
I generally try not to dis other reviewers, but sometimes (like now), there must be an exception. Let me just so so far as to say that I agree with those other normal folks who have reviewed this album (not the so-called critic).

He must have had a BAD day in order to hear only "precious little entertainment" from these guys. No purpose? I guess bringing together a couple of legends of the genre is not enough for him. Too damned bad.

These guys were great together in concert. The album works well, too. They obviously share much in common (maybe too much of it as wee might infer from the whimsical "Committed to Parkview"). The title cut, "Against the Wind", and "Desperados Waiting" are such good stuff. The intermingling of three very distinctive voices (sorry, but to my mind, Kris just is not quite in the same tax bracket) works very well throughout this album.

Good guys having a good time, making good music. Just what the Dcotor ordered, but not the critic. His loss.

Old-school country at its best.....
I have always liked the Highwaymen. I remember buying the 45 single of the title track when I was 10! What a great song...and it's the best one on this CD. All of the tracks make you think of the Wild West, and the first track is especially adept at doing that. Waylon, Willie, Kris, and Johnny have four unique and distinctive voices that shine well when put together as a supergroup. The Highwaymen were a great creation, and it is good to see that their albums are continuing to transcend the test of time. This is old-school country at its wildest and its best!