Sam Outlaw’s career is at an inflection point and he knows it. It’s the moment, the singer says, when you realize that more than just your friends are coming to your shows.
The Los Angeles-based singer who is getting set to release his first album “Angeleno,” also has a surprising admission. He says he cares more that people going home from one of his shows remember how good country music is first before remembering who he is.
“For me it’s the best music,” the South Dakota-born singer told hosts Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale on a recent episode of The Buddy & Jim Show. “I want people to know how good goddamned country music can be.”
Outlaw, who has released an EP and appears on “Bands Under The Radar Vol. 12: Americana For Hipsters,” is a throwback to classic traditional country built on a foundation of pedal steel and harmonies. His ongoing collaboration with harmony singer Molly Jenson might initially remind one of Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons.
“I don’t claim to be much of a singer but I really care about harmonies,” Outlaw said emphatically. “I always say if I have a good harmony singer and a good steel player, I could take kindergarteners and make a good band.”
Outlaw bears his mother’s maiden name which seems a divine gift for being a country music singer. But he is more of a traditional balladeer rooted in classic country which is unique in a world gone bro. On his EP, he revealed great country writing instincts best evidenced by the clever “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk (And Fall In Love).” He and Jenson debuted a couple of new songs on the radio including “It Might Kill Me” and “Country Love Song.”
Of the first, Outlaw got the idea from the phrase “it doesn’t kill you, it just makes you stronger.” Outlaw thought, well what if it does kill you and set off to compile a bunch of clichéd phrases and sentiments people throw at you during hard times.
Outlaw was in Nashville when he came over to Miller’s house and home studio where he and Lauderdale tape their show for SiriusXM Outlaw Country. Outlaw shared with listeners has chosen to resist the lure of Nashville and remain in Los Angeles where he recorded “Angeleno.” Upon returning home, just last week Jenson posted on Facebook that if you ever wanted to hear “Kiss Like a Rose” played with pedal steel, she and Outlaw would be performin it at the Echo.
“At times it feels a little lonely,” he confided saying he’s had a few moments of wondering if he should be in Nashville where he played during AmericanaFest. “It’s not to say there isn’t a roots country music scene. I felt it was important to be an LA record telling an LA story.”
Outlaw writes all of his own songs which is somewhat unique to Nashville where co-writing is part of the culture. Miller says it’s almost like people have to sign a piece of paper saying they will co-write when they cross the Davidson county line.
Miller reminds listeners of the great records made on Capitol and the Bakersfield, California sound. In fact Outlaw’s backing drummer Joachim Cooder played in Carly Ritter’s band, the granddaughter of the late Tex Ritter. “Angeleno,” which Outlaw self-funded in part through a Pledge Music campaign, is produced by his drummer’s father, the famed Americana musician Ry Cooder. Cooder brought in mariachi strings and acted almost like a film director, Outlaw recounted, talking out arrangements with the musicians.
Outlaw says that when you say country to people in Los Angeles, most may associate it with acts like Luke Bryan that are on commercial radio. “I don’t fault that but that’s not what I love about country.”
Outlaw says there are still straight-ahead country bars like the Swallows Inn where can go out Sunday and they still do “chicken-shit bingo and two-stepping–or at Pappy’s & Harry’s in Joshua Tree, out in the desert where Lauderdale goes to write and is beautifully filmed in Jeremy Dylan’s documentary “Jim Lauderdale: The King of Broken Hearts.”.
Outlaw’s passion for country music came about somewhat accidentally. About ten years ago he was home sick and bedridden when CMT had a top fifty countdown of the greatest country songs. “When I heard George Jones, my brain fell out of my head,” he remembered. Outlaw went out and bought Jones’ “16 Big Ones” and Emmylou Harris’ “Pieces of The Sky.” The singer who grew up on Asleep At The Wheel, the Eagles and other Southern California groups played by his parents, later realized he had been writing country songs but just didn’t know it.
The absorption and love affair with country music plays out in songs like “Kind To Me” where Outlaw comes up with the great line ‘I’m not Alan Jackson but couldn’t we pretend to be.’ Furthermore the exposure he had to Asleep At The Wheel and listening to their tribute to Bob Wills lingers. “Ray Benson is the ultimate,” he says. “I didn’t know who has some of the people were on that record until much later.”
All of these influences have led Outlaw to want to create an experience whenever he plays. Talking about how girls come to shows with their boots and daisy dukes, he says they don’t come just to hear a band play.
“They want to come to a country show and get absorbed in the feeling,” he adds. “Whatever venue I’m in, I try to turn it into a honky tonk. I like to fantasize that wherever I’m playing is a country bar and I try to suck people into that fantasy.”
