Music Style and Image
Jennings was characterized by his "powerful" singing voice, noted by his "rough-edged quality", as well as his phrasing and texture. Accompanying his vocals, he played guitar. He was recognized for his "spanky-twang" playing. To create his sound, he used a mixture of thumb and fingers during the rhythmic parts, while using picks for the lead runs. He combined hammer-on and pull-off riffs, with eventual upper-fret double stops and modulation effects. Jennings played a 1953 Fender Telecaster, which was a used guitar purchased as a gift to him by The Waylors. Jennings' bandmates adorned his guitar with a distinctive leather cover, that featured a black background with a white floral work. Jennings did further customizing work on the guitar, by filing down the frets to lower the strings on the neck to obtain the slapping sound. His signature image was characterized by his long hair and beard, as well as his black hat and the black leather vest he wore during his appareances.
Read more about this topic: Waylon Jennings
Famous quotes containing the words music, style and/or image:
“Now the rich stream of Music winds along
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong,”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“We have no participation in Being, because all human nature is ever midway between being born and dying, giving off only a vague image and shadow of itself, and a weak and uncertain opinion. And if you chance to fix your thoughts on trying to grasp its essence, it would be neither more nor less than if your tried to clutch water.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)