The Highwaymen--Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson--were country music's first bonafide "supergroup," an epic quartet of blockbuster star power comprised of the four prime forces of America's outlaw country music revolution. An essential musical and cultural influence, the Highwaymen were active for the decade spanning 1985 to 1995, recorded three major label albums, charted hit singles (including their Number 1 debut, "Highwayman," which won the Best Country Song Grammy Award in 1986) and performed a variety of shows achieving mythic status for those lucky enough to have been there.

"There's the four of us standing there, grouped around microphones. The Highwaymen. John, Kris, Willie, and me. I don't think there are any other four people like us," wrote Waylon Jennings in Waylon: An Autobiography. "John says that we came together because we all have a life commitment to the music. We know the same songs, but we sing them from different perspectives. We can blend the early country of the Carter Family with Texas swing, southern gospel, and rockabilly, and each of us feels comfortable singing real slices of life. There's not one of us who hasn't come face to face with his own mortality, and many's the time we've gone through our struggles and survivals together....That's our friendship, unlocking any door that stands between us, and it keeps four very different individuals together."

Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson first performed as the Highwaymen in 1985, after which they became a going concern for the next decade. Hits didn't often arrive -- their 1985 debut reached the top of Billboard's Country Album charts and its title track achieved the same feat on the singles chart -- but they became a reliable concert attraction after the release of Highwayman 2 in 1990. The 2016 archival release of Live: American Outlaws is the first official document of this part of the supergroup's life, providing the first-ever CD release of the March 14, 1990 show recorded at Nassau Coliseum that was previously released on VHS in 1991 (the video portion has been remastered and released as a DVD in this set), along with a third CD featuring a six-song set from 1992's Farm Aid V, four songs from 1993's Farm Aid VI, and a spruced-up outtake of Bob Dylan's "One Too Many Mornings," where Nelson and Kristofferson added new vocal harmonies to a recording from Cash and Jennings' 1986 LP Heroes.
Although all three of the concerts here were events by some measure, the Farm Aid gigs were high-profile charity shows, while the Nassau gig was intended for home video release. Considering this, it's odd how none of the three live dates feel like major events. All are matter-of-fact performances, the four Highwaymen relying on some measure of seasoned chops and personal charm as they trade songs, or perhaps just lines, on a collection of greatest-hits and new tunes they're plugging. The latter served as an excuse to get the band out on the road and they fade into the woodwork here, overshadowed by a collection of tunes that amount to some of the greatest songs of the 20th century. None of the renditions here are anywhere close to definitive -- the Highwaymen wear their age on their sleeves a bit, plus the productions are slick and overblown in a manner standard to big-budget shows of the '80s and '90s -- but something that would've seemed as little more than an enjoyable night out in 1990 now seems like something modestly special. Hearing these four Titans interact on-stage, harmonizing and cracking wise, it's hard not to marvel at the fact that for a while, Jennings, Nelson, Cash, and Kristofferson actually roamed from town to town, singing their songs along the way. This is a simple document of that time that seems more momentous now that the era has passed. --AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

           

Technical Specs
Blu-ray
BD-50 Dual-Layer Disc

Video Resolution/Codec
1080p/AVC MPEG-4

Aspect Ratio(s)
1.78:1

Audio Formats
English LPCM 5.1 (48 kHz / 6912 kbps / 24-bit)
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English LPCM 2.0 (48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit)

Subtitles/Captions
None

Supplements
• Willie Nelson 2:44
• Waylon Jennings 6:39
• Kris Kristofferson 8:18
• Johnny Cash 8:21
• Odds and Ends 6:29
Notes:
• Both the concert film and audio recordings have been remastered by Columbia/Legacy from the original master tapes. The concert film is remastered from a new scan of the original 35 mm film reels. The concert is previously unreleased in its unedited, full length form.