JESSI COLTER

The release of her latest CD, Out Of The Ashes, marks the re-emergence of Jessi Colter. A woman talented and versatile enough to top the pop charts and to be part of the groundbreaking country classic Wanted: The Outlaws, Colter secured a place in the history of both formats. Now, 20 years after her last new solo project, she is assured a place in the present and future of both as well.

Recorded over a two-year period, Out Of The Ashes is a stunning work that draws on Jessi's deep roots in gospel, blues, R&B and traditional country while bringing rock sensibilities to bear on a project that is as fresh as it is passionate. Produced by longtime friend and Grammy® winner Don Was and mixed by Ray Kennedy, the CD features musicians including Reggie Young, Jim Horn and Richie Albright, and guest appearances by Tony Joe White, Jessie's husband, the late Waylon Jennings, and Waylon and Jessi's son Shooter.

The project had its seeds in the season of grief that followed Waylon's death in 2002. Images from her travels, the remembered myth of the Phoenix — the immortal bird that rises from its own ashes — and the musical and cultural sensibilities of Shooter and his friends all helped spur Jessi's creativity.

"Where I felt safest," she says of that difficult time, "was among people who were really living. I kept taking steps and moving forward." She sat in with Shooter at some club gigs and, beginning with The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street, acquainted herself with classic rock. "I had been making music when everybody else was listening to it," she says, "so this was my time to listen to the cornerstones of rock. I went through this whole love affair with the music."

She began writing, and took the first song to Was for some feedback. "Bring me ten of those," he said, "and we'll go into the studio." Knocked out by what he heard, Was began sitting in on bass at some of Jessi's shows as the songs poured out of her. Assembling musicians from among friends she had worked with over the years, she and Was began a recording process designed to capture the warm, loose spirit of the proceedings.

"We tried to keep the vein of just plain fun we were having as we were doing it," she says. Was' desire for passion over polish led him to use some of Jessi's demos as final tracks. "He said, 'Nobody else can play piano on this but you,'" remembers Jessi. "I've got this weird style from my gospel roots and black influences and Don just loves my playing. He knew it would be authentic."

It is certainly that. The highlights are many. "The Canyon" finds Jessi's haunting piano and vocals spinning a tale whose imagery reveals the narrator's aloneness and isolation. "You Can Pick 'Em" is a rocker, "a song young people really love" and one she co-write with Lyle Lovett band member Ray Herndon. The blues-tinged version of Dylan's "Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35" reflects a piece of her journey through rock's back pages. "Please Carry Me Home" is a powerful gospel track co-written with Shooter for "Songs Inspired By The Passion of the Christ." An emotional cornerstone of the project is "Out Of The Rain," written by Tony Joe White and featuring his vocals as well as those of Waylon, and an appearance by the Greater Apostolic Christ Temple choir. Of "The Phoenix Rises," with its portrayal of resurrection amid imagery from a getaway early in the healing process, she says simply, "It was vitally important to me, because I lived it."

In all, Out Of The Ashes is a moving project, one that wrought art from struggle and brought healing to Jessi herself. "It still helps me when I get low or feel alone or empty," she says, "and that's a good sign because I have been able to express where I've been and now I'm able to go on."

Out Of The Ashes adds new depth to a rich catalog that has been cited as inspiration by artists like Allison Moorer and Iris Dement. The career behind that catalog had its roots in Arizona, where Jessi grew up the daughter of a minister. "By the time I was 12," she says, "I was performing, doing talent contests and local TV shows in Arizona. I was young and driven even though I wasn't worldly. I wasn't allowed in clubs. I played piano in church, but I also did the western dances in high school." In the 1960s, while married to Duane Eddy, she became a songwriter of note, penning songs recorded by Nancy Sinatra, Don Gibson and Dottie West, among others. It was after her marriage to Waylon Jennings in 1969, though, that her career really took off. Talented and beautiful, she graced the cover of Waylon's folk-country classic Cedartown, Georgia, after releasing her own debut, A Country Star Is Born.

Her 1975 Capitol Records debut, I'm Jessi Colter, which she describes as "more or less a concept album about different aspects of relationships," contained both the classic "I'm Not Lisa," which topped the country charts and became a Top Five pop crossover smash, and the Top Five country hit "Whatever Happened To Blue Eyes." The fact that she wrote both of the hits (as well as most of the songs on the new project) was just one more testament to her talent.

A year later, she and Waylon, Tompall Glaser and Willie Nelson teamed up for Wanted: The Outlaws, a justly legendary and seminal country album and the first officially sanctioned platinum LP in country music history. She was a major force in two genres.

Jessi had teamed with Waylon for Top 40 duets as early as 1970, but by late in the decade she was part and parcel of the Outlaw juggernaut, on tour and in the studio, holding her own and creating music amid the formidable talents and egos of her husband and a widening group of male confederates — and earning their enduring respect. They wrested artistic control from Music Row's corporate system, a legacy handed off to pop, rock and alt-country artists of recent vintage, as seen in the ranks of some of those citing Jessi as an influence.

There were many years beginning in the '80s when, in the words of friend and admirer Kris Kristofferson, "her fierce commitment to being Waylon's soul-mate and Shooter's mom put her own art in the background." In fact, there would be a decade between releases, with the next being two well-received children's albums in 1995 and 2000. The year 2003 saw the release of An Outlaw...A Lady: The Very Best of Jessi Colter, which No Depression called "one of the more important and plain necessary releases of the year." The project again showcased her legacy both for those who were part of the magic as it happened and for a new generation.

Now, the release of Out Of The Ashes and Jessi's re-emergence as a recording and concert artist adds immeasurably to that legacy. The woman whose fearless and passionate mixing of styles and genres has created a one-of-a-kind catalog and affected so much of both pop and country music is once again making an impact on both.

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