Drummer Richie Albright played with Waylon Jennings for nearly thirty years, starting in Arizona in the early 1960s and moving with Jennings to Nashville and serving as the Outlaw country icon's "right hand."

Here, Albright visits the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019 for a Nashville Cats program, just under a year after the Museum's exhibition "Outlaws & Armadillos: Country’s Roaring ʼ70s" opened to visitors in Nashville. Albright's red sparkle Ludwig drum kit was included within that exhibition to help render the Outlaw country story, alongside memories and artifacts from Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and many other artists whose sound and style exemplified that movement and moment in country music history.

During his Nashville Cats installment, Albright shares foggy memories of his Oklahoma youth and how his interest in tap-dancing gave way to an interest in girls, along with fond memories of his first drum kit (a 1926 Leedy), and teaching himself to play by absorbing the style of drummers such as Cozy Cole and Gene Krupa.

Richie Albright also digs into his experiences as part of Waylon Jennings's band The Waylors, from working up an early local fanbase at a club called J.D.’s in Tempe, Arizona, to encouraging Jennings to adopt the rock & roll edge that went on to define his rough-hewn persona, and teaming with Jennings during the last few years of his life in the Waymore Blues Band.

To close the Nashville Cats event, Albright moves back behind the drums alongside his band, Waymore’s Outlaws, to perform a medley of Waylon Jennings songs. Among the Jennings selections: "You Ask Me To" (co-written by Jennings and Billy Joe Shaver), "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean," "Good Hearted Woman" (which Jennings co-wrote with fellow Country Music Hall of Fame member Willie Nelson), "Honky Tonk Heroes," and "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Gone Out of Hand."

Waymore’s Outlaws includes bassist Jerry Bridges, multi-instrumentalist Fred Newell, keyboardist Barny Robertson, singer Carter Robertson, and singer-guitarist Tommy Townsend. For this Nashville Cats program, guitarist and longtime Waylors member Gordon Payne also joins in.

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Find out more about the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's public programs: https://countrymusichalloffame.org/plan-your-visit/exhibits-activities/public-programs/

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