A Fitting Farewell for Waylon Jennings

I read many articles about Waylon Jennings last week, but Robert Hilburn’s was the most nuanced and insightful (“Tenderness in a Country Tough Guy,” Feb. 15). I have listened to his music for most of my life and always believed that while it was the macho-posturing songs that drew the most reaction from the crowds, it was the sensitive, slower songs that people really listened to.

ALONSO JASSO

Las Vegas

*

I was very touched by Robert Hilburn’s article. I’m 55 years old and grew up listening to Waylon, Willie Nelson, Buck Owens and others. Although I rarely listen to the current “country” artists, I’ve continued to frequent Waylon’s old hits, and I must say I have a strange, empty feeling with his passing.

He was certainly his own man, a great guitar player who had a unique and rich voice. He was a true talent and will be greatly missed. Fortunately for his many admirers, he will live on through his recorded music.

RUSS SKRABLE

Newport Beach

*

I had often thought that Waylon’s down-to-earth view of life plus his enormous artistic talent would have qualified him to be the poet laureate of America rather than the highfalutin writers we praise so highly. Unlike most of them, Waylon captured the essence of the average, sometimes magical, American guy as he suffers through life. His genius, thanks to recordings, lives on.

RALPH RISKIN

Santa Barbara

*

I once had a cat named Waylon. He was always covered with dirt, mewed vociferously, kicked the hell out of anything that got in his way and loved me intensely. I miss him a lot. Best cat I ever had. He would have little use for the phony publicity that Nashville will be cranking up over his namesake; nor will I.

Waylon Jennings was one of the handful of greatest country artists ever, and the country establishment dissed him for his entire career. So let me preempt the saccharine platitudes from Music City with the remark that Waylon was a genuine “Honky-Tonk Hero.” That’s all that needs to be said.

MICHAEL HELWIG

Canoga Park

*

in his review of the “Down From the Mountain” concert at Universal Amphitheatre is just plain ridiculous (“Acoustic Americana,” Feb. 19).

One would think a semi-educated guy like Cromelin would be willing to judge the concert and its content without preconceptions, but he blathered on for several paragraphs about the “unjustified air of self-congratulation” evinced by Bob Neuwirth, the able and wry singer of songs chosen as master of ceremonies, who celebrated the tremendous surge of popular response to this great music with genuine warmth and love. Then Cromelin waxed poetic on the emphasis on female artists being showcased, without getting the fact that this vital music is not about a male or a female sensibility, nor is it a vehicle for feminism--it’s just a tradition that is carried by the faithful, telling simple stories that have real emotional weight.

Any artificial agenda attached to the music, as Cromelin feebly attempted to do, simply falls flat on its fanny.

STEPHEN PATT

Santa Monica