*** Waylon Jennings

CLOSING IN ON THE FIRE

(Ark 21)

It's been a long and swerving road for Waylon Jennings, from being a member of Buddy Holly's Crickets, then the longhaired leader of the Waylors, to an esteemed place as a grand old outlaw of country music who recorded Closing In on the Fire with reverent young guests like Sting, Sheryl Crow, Randy Scruggs, and Mark Knopfler. There's probably nothing in the music world that Jennings hasn't seen at least twice, and it shows in this earthy set that ranges from muscular, polished rock arrangements to good old loose-limbed country soul.

Jennings drawls in a flat but comfortable bass about money slipping through his fingers, a Chrysler that won't turn left, and other colorful things. The tune with Crow, "She's Too Good for Me," is a strange one: the song grinds to a halt as a Crow-led chorus busts in like Seinfeld's Kramer. The finer cuts are the several -- "Easy Money" and "Just Watch Your Mama and Me" among them -- where the good ol' boy talks and the pretense walks. Jennings also turns the tables on the Rolling Stones, giving a ringing contemporary Nashville spin to the diamond-in-the-rough from Beggars Banquet, "No Expectations."

-- Bill Kisliuk