Ten years on, one of country’s strangest and most rewarding left turns gets a fresh pressing. Shooter Jennings is marking the 10th anniversary of his genre-defying seventh studio album ‘Countach (For Giorgio)’ with a limited-edition neon purple vinyl reissue, the first time the record has appeared in a variant colour. The pressing is capped at 500 copies and shipping now while supplies last.
The album is a tribute to Grammy and Academy Award-winning producer and composer Giorgio Moroder, the Italian-born “Father of Disco” behind iconic soundtracks for Midnight Express, Top Gun, The NeverEnding Story, and Flashdance. Jennings fuses fiddle, outlaw country grit, DX7 synthesizers, and LinnDrum programming into something entirely his own.
Nearly a decade after its original February 26, 2016 release on Jennings’ own Black Country Rock label, the record’s genre-blurring DNA of outlaw country, synth-disco, and cinematic pop feels more culturally resonant than ever. It opens with an archival vocal from Waylon Jennings himself, threading the outlaw lineage directly into Moroder’s electronic cosmos, then unfolds as a sound-collage journey through 80s and 90s culture with guest turns from Brandi Carlile, Marilyn Manson, the late country-rock pioneer Steve Young, and computer-game visionary Richard Garriott de Cayeux.
The making of it rekindled something in Jennings. “I just started digging and researching and all of a sudden it hit me how much music Giorgio had made that had been an influence on me, even without knowing that it was him who was responsible for it,” he says. “Hearing all that stuff and adapting it to live instruments was, in a way, showing people how ahead of his time he was. Dissecting his pieces, doing each part by part, and really understanding it from the inside, it made me fall in love with making music again, in a way.”
The gamble paid off commercially too. ‘Countach (For Giorgio)’ peaked at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top Dance Albums, a remarkable crossover for an artist then known primarily as the son of outlaw country legend Waylon Jennings. The placement affirmed both the album’s genuine electronic roots and Shooter’s ability to reach well beyond his core country following. A decade later, it stands as a love letter to the 80s written in the language of outlaw country.
‘Countach (For Giorgio)’ Tracklisting:
- Loading… featuring Waylon Jennings
- Countach
- From Here to Eternity
- I’m Left You’re Right She’s Gone
- Born to Die featuring Steve Young
- Chase featuring Richard Garriott de Cayeux
- Love Kills
- The Neverending Story featuring Brandi Carlile
- Cat People (Putting Out Fire) featuring Marilyn Manson