Outlaw country
Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, David Allan Coe and Jerry Jeff Walker were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
A greater transition occurred after Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were able to secure their own recording rights, and began the trend of bucking the "Nashville sound".
In the Western United States, the Bakersfield sound was providing a counterpoint to the traditional Nashville sound, and the counterculture was also giving rise to the fusion genre of country rock, with groups such as the Flying Burrito Brothers and The First National Band (whose lead singer Michael Nesmith had similar creative rebellion against the West Coast music establishment dating to his time with The Monkees).
According to Jason Mellard, author of Progressive Country: How the 1970s Transformed the Texan in Popular Culture, the term "seems to have sedimented over time rather than exploding in the national consciousness all at once".
Art critic Dave Hickey, who wrote a 1974 profile in Country Music magazine, also used the term to describe artists who opposed the commercial control of the Nashville recording industry.
Songwriters/guitarists such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Hank Williams, Jr. shed the formulaic Nashville sound, grew long hair, and replaced rhinestone-studded suits with leather jackets.
[2] At the same time, outlaw country performers brought back older styles that had fallen into disuse, such as honky tonk songs and "cowboy ballads".
[13] The outlaw country artists aimed to resist the big "machine" of the Nashville establishment, which "codified" norms of sounds, styles, and even appearance and behavior through influential "tastemaker" shows such as Grand Ole Opry.
Performing and associating with the likes of Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, and Billy Joe Shaver helped shape his future career.
In 1975, Williams was severely injured in an avalanche while mountain climbing, disfiguring him to the point where he no longer resembled his father; he grew a beard to hide the scars, which he has maintained ever since.
Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore formed the Flatlanders, a group that never sold huge numbers of albums, but continues to perform.
[16] Other Texans, like Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, and Guy Clark, developed the outlaw ethos through their songwriting and ways of living.
Like the other outlaw singers, he eschewed the polished Nashville look with a somewhat ragged (especially in later years), all-black outfit that inspired Cash's nickname, the "Man in Black".
