With his square face and scraggly hair, Waylon Jennings certainly never looked like a star, even in the elevate-the-everyday realm of country music. And he was neither a spectacular singer nor a top-flight songwriter. But Jennings' dark aura made him mesmerizing onstage, where he'd growl about heartache and pluck at his gorgeous pearl-inlay guitar while the hottest C&W players in the business worked up a good head of honky-tonk steam beside him. The current Nashville Rebel CD box set is essential listening, and its companion DVD—collecting scattered '70s TV appearances, and sold separately—is even more essential viewing, because just hearing Jennings ramble through Billie Joe Shaver's "Slow Rollin' Low" isn't the same as seeing him and The Waylors on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, playing the song as though it were their last earthly deed. And given Jennings' early-career friendship with poor, doomed Buddy Holly, maybe he felt it was.
Alt-country chanteuse Neko Case writes songs even grimmer than Jennings', but her stage presence is far more unassuming. On the Live From Austin TX DVD, Case and her tight, drum-free combo run through a set of Case originals—circa 2003—and a few choice covers, like Bob Dylan's "Buckets Of Rain." Case is in fine vocal form, as is her pal and harmonizer Kelly Hogan, and though they aren't the most dynamic performers, the Case quartet wrings every drop of emotion from "Deep Red Bells" and an early version of "Maybe Sparrow." Given the kind of career Case has had so far, this little video document—culled from PBS' Austin City Limits—could prove to be a cultural treasure on a par with those long-forgotten Jennings TV appearances. Thank you, television.