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The Outlaw Trail
A HI DEF TV SPECIAL OF A LIVE CONCERT Filmed by HD Net and Recorded at The Paramount Theatre, February 20th, 2008 Austin, TX. 2008
WLIW/PBS Pledge Special Season Launch: June 2008
Featuring Legendary Performances of Outstanding Outlaw Songs
The Outlaw Trail: The mysterious sanctuary of countless Outlaws - the Badlands of the West stretching from Canada through Montana, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and into New Mexico. The trail was used by Outlaws as they fled the law to certain escape in their hidden fortresses - hideouts like The Hole-in-the-Wall, Browns Park and Robbers Roost, leaving the lawmen far behind in a maze of canyons and dizzying mountain passes.
Despite the urban bulldozers that have destroyed much of the old “Frontier”, there are still vast areas of the Outlaw Trail that still exist and echo to the memory of Butch Cassidy; The Sundance Kid; Jesse James & The James Gang, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, Kid Curry, Tom Horn, Wild Bill Hickok, Kit Carson, Isom Dart and Etta Place.
The Outlaw Trail has been immortalized in countless films and lamented in the music of legendary artists and our proposal will create a musical travelogue along the Outlaw Trail and the legendary music, musicians and performances of the 20th Century that it inspired.
Country & Western Music, as opposed to today’s Pop Country, is still the most cherished and popular source of “Outlaw Music” and has been augmented by a great number of Rock artists whose musical roots are firmly in Western Swing and Traditional Country Music.
The Live Concert TV Special & Mulit CD, DVD & Documentary Presentation
- The Live Concert was shot at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, on the 20th February, 2008.
- Presented by Ray Benson and Cowboy Troy, the Concert was narrated by Waddie Mitchell – The Cowboy Poet.
- The Live 2 hour and 30 min. concert produced a 2 hour Hi Def TV Special(25 performances) HD Net TV (www.hd.net), and a 90 minute (13 performances) Pledge Special for WLIW/PBS (www.wliw.org). The TV Special was a 10 camera shoot in Hi Definition, Surround Sound 5.1 Audio and featured 25 artists and 29 performances - in partnership with HD Net TV and PBS / WLIW New York and Timeless Music Group.
- UPDATE: The 2009 Outlaw Trail Tour, developed and promoted in partnership wiith nationwide PBS affiliates as part of the Winter 2008 / Spring 2009 Pledge Drive season will be launched in August 2008 in partnership with APA Nashville .
Review: THE OUTLAW TRAIL
Thursday, February 21, 2008 by John T. Davis - Austin Chronicle
History and music arrived at a crossroads on the Paramount Theatre stage Wednesday night with the presentation of "The Outlaw Trail," an ensemble country/rock concert that was being filmed for broadcast (first on the HDNet channel, later on PBS and still later available on home video) at the historic downtown venue.
Taking their cue from the historic Outlaw Trail - the chain of byways and hideouts that chased the Continental Divide from Montana to Mexico in the 19th century - the show's producers assembled a cast whose music, they thought, embodied the same rebellious spirit as the renegades, gunslingers and lawmen who made the West so wild.
That conceit proved elastic enough to include a diverse host of musical talent that ranged from stalwarts of the Austin and Nashville scenes to some up-and-comers and a few genuinely left-of-center choices.
Thus, concert-goers were treated to juxtapositions like hometown Latino rockers Del Castillo sharing the stage with "Nashville Star" winner Buddy Jewell, cowboy poet Waddie Mitchell, Muzik Mafia rapper Cowboy Troy and Mavericks heartthrob Raul Malo.
Joe Ely, Rodney Crowell, Asleep at the Wheel, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jessi Colter lent a shot of gravitas from the original "outlaw" musical heyday of a quarter-century ago, and younger performers like fiddler Megan Mullins and Holly Williams (Hank's granddaughter) dovetailed well with a house band of all-star Austin players helmed by veteran drummer (Eric Clapton, Bob Seger) and musical director Jamie Oldaker. Utilizing Western-themed songs by Bob Dylan, Poco, the Eagles, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Marty Robbins, and laced with original material, the three-hour performance traced an emotional arc from the high-flying hubris of pistoleros riding a wide-open range ("Wanted Man," "Big Iron," "Rose of Cimarron") to the elegiac ballads that evoked the closing of the frontier ("Pancho and Lefty," "Desperados Waiting For A Train," "Slow-Movin' Outlaw").
The performances were exemplary as a rule, and there were a handful of genuinely thrilling moments: Joe Ely's "Me and Billy the Kid," jump-started the crowd early on; Raul Malo's two diverse turns (on Marty Robbins' "El Paso" and that soundtrack-'o-the-70s rocker "Bad Company") elicited cheers ("Don't put me on after Raul!" pleaded Suzy Bogguss); Lee Roy Parnell downright lit up the joint with a fiery, slide guitar-laced rocker about crossing the river to Mexico; Jessi Colter made two quietly moving appearances at center stage and Asleep At the Wheel's Ray Benson (with a distaff chorus that included Colter, Williams, Bogguss and Carlene Carter) even made the old warhorse "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" seem fresh and moving.