An Outlaw and a Lady: A Memoir of Music, Life with Waylon, and the Faith that Brought Me Home

by Jessi Colter Narrated by Devon O'day

Overview

Renowned songwriter, singer, and wife of Waylon Jennings writes an intimate, enormously entertaining memoir of American music, of life with Waylon and the Outlaws, and of faith lost and found.

The daughter of a Pentecostal evangelist and a race-car driver, Jessi Colter played piano and sang in church before leaving Arizona to tour with rock-n-roll pioneer Duane Eddy, whom she married. Colter became a successful recording artist, appearing on American Bandstand and befriending stars such as the Everly Brothers and Chet Atkins, while her songs were recorded by Nancy Sinatra, Dottie West, and others. Her marriage to Eddy didn't last, however, and in 1969 she married the electrifying Waylon Jennings. Together, they made their home in Nashville, which in the 1970s, was ground zero for roots music, drawing Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Shel Silverstein, and others to the Nashville Sound. And Jessi was at the center of it all, the only woman on the landmark Wanted: The Outlaws album, the record that launched the Outlaw Country genre and was the first country album to go platinum. She also tasted personal commercial success with the #1-single “I'm Not Lisa.”

But offstage, life was a challenge, as Waylon pursued his addictions and battled his demons. Having drifted from the church as a young woman, Jessi returned to her faith and found in it a source of strength in the turmoil of living with Waylon. In the 1980s, Waylon helped launch the super group The Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, and the hits kept rolling, as did Waylon's reckless living. Amid it all, Jessi faithfully prayed for her husband until finally, at Thanksgiving 2001, Waylon found Jesus, just months before he died.*

An Outlaw and a Lady is a powerful story of American music, of love in the midst of heartache, and of faith that sustains.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

02/13/2017
Colter’s often touching memoir is a fast-paced chronicle of her life, loves, and Christian faith. Colter gained fame as the wife of hard-drinking, wild-living country music outlaw Waylon Jennings, but music flowed in her life long before she met him. Born the sixth child of a car repairman father and a preacher mother, Colter learned to love music very early, writing melodies on an upright piano in her mother’s church. Eventually she met and married rock guitarist Duane Eddy, who took her to Nashville to meet musician Chet Atkins. He got her songs recorded by country artists such as Dottie West and pop singers such as Nancy Sinatra. After her divorce from Eddy, life moved quickly: she married Jennings, changed her name to Jessi Colter, and released her first album. Over the years she and Jennings endured ups and downs, surrounded by friends such as Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson,; throughout, her Christian faith sustained her. Colter’s moving memoir fits nicely beside Jennings’s own memoir (Waylon: An Autobiography) and Terry Jennings’s recollections of his father, Waylon: Tales of My Outlaw Dad. (Apr.)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170467679
Publisher:	Nelson, Thomas, Inc.
Publication date:	04/11/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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